Afghan filmmakers go behind, beyond the burqa

Nasima Mustafa wants the world to see Afghanistan through her camera lens, even if it means filming through the mesh window of a burqa.

"It was hard to see," says Ms. Mustafa, one of 13 women training to be Afghanistan's first broadcast camerawomen and documentary filmmakers. "But when I have a burqa on, I feel safe."

In a country where, until a year ago, photography was banned, and women and girls were forced to stay home from school and work, these are not exactly roles in which most Afghans are keen to accept women. The fact that many members of the country's press - both male and female - still practice self-censorship further complicates these budding journalists' challenge. Most days, though, shooting on location, the women's most pressing concerns are for their own safety.

"Unfortunately, when [many people] see a woman with a camera, they're seeing something new, and they don't like it," says Mustafa, taking a break from filming a group of Afghanistan's best musicians. "We can see it in their eyes that they're not happy with us."

The women - being taught by aïna ("mirror"), a French aid group dedicated to the development of independent media in Afghanistan - have taken on some controversial topics during the year-long course. In their first four television features, produced here and shown on French television, the women turned their cameras on child labor and teenage marriages.

Mustafa chose an even more sensitive topic: women held in a decrepit Kabul prison because they left home to be with a man of their choosing, not one their family chose for them. Authorities keep them in jail, in part, because they are in danger of being killed by a family member.

"I studied the newspapers for a long time, and I wouldn't see any mention of these things," says Mustafa. "And I always thought: If I could become a journalist, those are the things I would want to show." Almost a month ago, she decided to abandon her burqa, and has since been wearing a simple black veil, wisps of brown and gold-highlighted hair peeking out around her face.

Her family didn't like the decision to take off the over-the-head blue cloak - nor her insistence on taking this uncharted career step. "I told my family that it's not good to go around with the burqa and then suddenly take it off in order to film, so it's better not to wear it," she explains. "They agreed, but my brothers really don't like it."

This is not the first time that Mustafa has done something a little radical. When the Taliban government was in power, she ran an underground school for girls in her home. Taliban values and modes of oppression, she says, had an impact on the country that she's afraid will take years to reverse.

Even now, Mustafa says, "the security forces are made up of very conservative people who don't want to see us. Even the families of the filmmakers don't want their daughters to be dishonored, so some of them have to wear the burqa when we work.

"I'm happy to be doing this," she says, "but I'm also a little frightened because of the security situation."

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