For The New York Times Magazine (2020):"Now in Prison, They Feel Free." by Kiana Hayeri

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For The New York Times Magazine (2020):"Now in Prison, They Feel Free."

kiana hayeri

Feb 26, 2020

Violence against women is rampant in Afghanistan. As a Persian saying goes, “a woman enters her husband’s house wearing white and leaves his house wearing white,” referring to the shroud that wraps the dead before burial. That very well could have been the fate of some of these women. Instead, they left in handcuffs and found peace, freedom, and hope inside a prison.

This is the story of women who have pushed so far that they saw no other way out of abusive marriages but to murder their husbands. Many did save their lives and their children's lives.

They Killed Their Husbands. Now in Prison, They Feel Free.
Violence against women is rampant in Afghanistan. For some, murdering their husbands was the only way they could escape their abusive marriages.

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Kiana Hayeri

Also by Kiana Hayeri —

on National Geographic: A photographer gives an inside look at the fall of Kabul, her longtime home

on The New York Times: What Will Become of Afghanistan's Post-9/11 Generation?

The New York Times: Kabul's Sudden Fall to Taliban Ends U.S. Era in Afghanistan

The New York Times: U.S. Is Sending 3,000 Troops Back to Afghanistan to Begin Evacuations

Photoville 2020: Promises Written On The Ice, Left In The Sun

on NYTimes: At War: She Went to Prison for Killing Her Husband. The Pandemic Set Her Free.

The Washington Post: "˜There's no humanity left': A family buries a mother and her unborn child in Afghanistan

Tim Hetherington 'Visionary Award 2020: KIANA HAYERI

on NYT: Afghanistan's Next War

"Scarred and Weary, an Afghan Force Wonders: What Is Peace?" for The New York Times (2020)

"Afghan Women Don't Want To Be Saved. But They Demand To Be Heard" for Buzzfeed News (2019)

Single Mothers of Afghanistan on Globe and Mail

"The TransAsia Train" for Polka Magazine (2013)