Under Cover

Kabul, Afghanistan, 2007

“The situation for widows in Afghanistan is desperate. While the collapse of the Taliban has resulted in general improvement in the lives of women and girls, these new opportunities are still out of reach to the Afghan widows who lost their only means of support. Illiterate and unskilled, they struggle to provide the most basic of needs — shelter, food and clothing — for their families. International relief organizations estimate that in Kabul alone, there are 30,000 to 50,000 widows, struggling to support an average of five children on less than $16 per month. In other parts of the country, the situation is even worse.” —From the website of Beyond the 11th, a charitable organization founded by two 9/11 widows to help Afghani women and girls oppressed by the Taliban

Teun Voeten‘s work will be featured at the Noorderlicht Photofestival in Groningen, Netherlands, September 6–October 4, 2009.