From Ukraine to Syria, Afghanistan to South Sudan, British Vogue shares 16 unique stories of conflict, displacement and resilience.
In the days since leaving Kyiv, martial law had been introduced. Men of military age could no longer leave Ukraine. At the border, Sergey and I were forced to surrender our relationship to an unknown tomorrow as he returned to volunteer for war. We held each other and cried, knowing there was nothing we could change, that it was the best option for my safety, my family. We don’t know if or when we will next meet, if we will have jobs, a home.
Years later, I would return to Afghanistan, but this time as a foreign correspondent. I have been reporting from the country now for almost 15 years. Last August, the world watched in horror as Kabul fell back into the hands of the Taliban – 20 years after the US-led invasion. Gut-wrenching images ensued: of children crushed in stampedes; of mothers handing infants over barbed wire; of Afghans falling to their deaths from a US military aircraft as it took off.
When I look at the children at the train station in Lviv, or an Afghan refugee settled now in Albania or the UK, I don’t just see tragedy and suffering, I see potential and hope.In 2003, I was in northern Iraq, photographing Iraqis escaping to Syria from the war. Ten years later, I was photographing Syrians fleeing into Iraq. That, to me, was so poignant: how a place that was once a safe haven can become the place people are fleeing from. That is the reality of war.
What about all the other refugees who need our compassion, our empathy, our love and our action? I support refugees no matter where they come from and regardless of whether or not my country will benefit politically, economically or morally for taking them in. Will we stand for them?My story began with my mother fleeing the Somali civil war, on foot, to seek refuge in Kakuma, a refugee camp in Kenya. I was born and raised in this same camp, until I was seven years old.
I have always wanted my photographs to make people aware of how pointless war and the loss of human life is, but, sadly, what I feel about my life’s work is that I’ve failed in everything I’ve done. Because as soon as one war starts and finishes, another one is in the wings waiting. After 60 years photographing these terrible things, I feel I’ve achieved nothing. My house, filled with ten-thousand prints, is haunted by these images.
That morning we were woken up not by the beaming rays of sunlight or the irritating buzzing of our alarms but by the soul-draining sounds of sirens and bombs erupting on a peaceful city. That morning we didn’t go about our usual routines, making coffee and planning out our upcoming day. Instead, in terror and panic, we were grabbing only what we could carry. With our documents and pets in hand, we were leaving without understanding what the future would hold.
We well-settled few use the oil or the land or the money from the war to make our lives more comfortable, more luxurious. And then when the victims come begging for refuge, we shut our doors, our eyes and ears.
As a mother, I feel the weight of this astonishing legacy as I teach my daughter about the world she inhabits. It is hard to know what to say so that her luck doesn’t make her blind. Raising a child who isn’t astonished by the many accidents of birth would be my greatest failure.
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