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NOWHERE IS SAFE FOR THEM

Pakistan is expelling 1,5 millions of undocumented afghans, refugees in the country. These women fled Afghanistan when Talibans took over but now they are forcibly back to their country, registering at the border with Taliban authorities.

Awards

Color Photography Contest

2025

Gold

Photojournalism

Professional

Nominee

People

Professional

NOWHERE IS SAFE FOR THEM

Pakistan is expelling 1,5 millions of undocumented afghans, refugees in the country. These women fled Afghanistan when Talibans took over but now they are forcibly back to their country, registering at the border with Taliban authorities.

About Artist

Veronique De Viguerie

Veronique de Viguerie is a 46-years-old photojournalist, single mother-of-two based in Paris. After a master’s degree in law, fascinated by what was happening in Afghanistan, she disobeyed her parents, borrowed some money from her grand-mother and bought a one-way ticket to Kabul. In 2005, as she was filing pictures in a cybercafé in Kabul, a suicide bomber exploded himself. She was one of the survivors. She met, Talibans multiple times over the years trying to understand why some men were ready to die and kill just for an ideology. From that day, her pictures intend to give a face to the ones nobody wants to look at: the Talibans, the pirates in Somalia, the sicarias (women killers) in Mexico, the oil pirates in the Niger Delta, the Houthis in Yemen, the MNLA in Mali, the gangs in Brazil, the rebels of RCA etc… In 2013, covered up in a niqab, she luckily escaped an ambush made by the Mujao in Northern Mali. In 2017, she was sequestered with the journalist for 2 weeks by Houthis who accused them of being spies because they were reporting on child soldiers. In 2023, She was taken hostage in RCA by a warlord as she was covering the exactions committed by Wagner militia in the region. Her work is regularly published by Paris-Match, Time, Géo, Figaro, the Guardian, Marie-Claire etc. She exhibited “Afghanistan, Insh’Allah” in Perpignan, Paris and Anger, “Yemen, the hidden war” was exhibited in Bayeux, Paris and Brussels. She published some books “Afghanistan, Regards Croisés”, “Profession: Reporter”, “Carnets de Reportages du XXIe siècle”, “Yemen, la guerre qu’on nous cache », « Iraq Insh’Allah ». In 2011, she was starring an episode of « Witness » an HBO program, following the arrow boys in Sudan in their hunt for Joseph Kony. Among her awards she received a WPP, 2 Visas d’Or, 2 prizes at Bayeux Festival for Best War Reportage etc.

Veronique De Viguerie

Photographic Areas of Focus

People, Photojournalism

Location

France

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