Barat Ali Batoor’s photography of Afghanistan and the refugee experience has won him plaudits around the world. Integrating his personal experience as a Hazara refugee to Australia into remarkable photographs, Bartoor presents to global audiences visions of rarely accessed worlds. Batoor’s images have points of intense focus that grab the eye but simultaneously invite the viewer to range over the contrasting textures and forms of the multiple background layers. His artistic brilliance rests in large part on his ability to capture the intensity of feeling within everyday activities—harvesting crops, smoking a cigarette or caring for children.

Leaving Kabul in 2012 Batoor undertook the perilous journey to Australia via Pakistan, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia carrying his camera and keeping a photographic record of the journey along the way. One of these images, that of refugees looking up and  out from under the boards of a boat bound for Australia won him the Nikon Walkley Photo of the Year in 2013. It stands as a portrait of transition—men with hope for a safer life and freedom from fear, at the precise moment when they are trapped in the hull of a boat on perilous seas. Bartoor’s online galleries also show us life among the Hazara in their homeland, as well as their arduous journeys as refugees traversing Pakistan and Indonesia.  An engaging series of Black and White images depicts the Hazara community in Melbourne, at work and play.

Batoor has also been at the forefront of publicising the lives of the so called ‘dancing boys’ (bacha-bazi)—adolescent boys who are bought and sold for men’s entertainment in parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Dressed in feminine clothing they perform at men-only private parties. The bacha-bazi have a chance for freedom once reaching adulthood, but often find themselves trapped in a life of sexual slavery or ongoing social stigma. Batoor’s poignant photos of the bacha-bazi below reveal their plight as trafficked children but also their resilience and grace in performance.

The images below depict life in the face of great adversity.

Bamyan, Afghanistan.

Sar e Asyab Bamyan, Afghanistan.

Children at their school in Panjab Bamyan, Afghanistan

Nargis valley Panjab, Bamyan, Afghanistan.

Afshar District, West Kabul
On 11-12 February 1993, forces of Ahmad Shah Massoud and Abdul Rab Rasul Sayyaf attacked Afshar. They killed thousands of mostly Hazara civilians. The incident is known as the 'Afshar massacre' and still remembered as one of the worst atrocities of Afghanistan’s civil war.

"My name is Marziya. When we woke in the morning, the area was occupied by militias. People who had learnt about the retreat of Hizb-e-Wahdat of Abdul Ali Mazari, had left the area and those who didn't, remained and suffered like us. They searched every home. When they came to our home, they took my husband captive. The militias were both Pashto speaking and Dari speaking people. They asked me for money, and I told them that we didn't have any money. One of them, dressed in a military uniform, asked me take off the gold ring I was wearing. I said that it can’t come off anymore, so he grabbed me by the hand and pulled me to the courtyard. He said that he would get it off, he put my hand on the courtyard steps and cut my fingers with an axe. I didn't know what happened after that. When I woke up, I saw my eldest son's dead body laying across me. He was just 9 years old then. Later I learnt when my son ran to me after the guy cut my fingers off, and another man opened fire at my son. My sister-in-law was also injured. They also shot me in my legs with three bullets. For three days they poured a rain of blood on us. Every time my feet touch those steps my whole body burns. It is hard for me to clean that memory from my mind."

Ahmad Shah Massoud was later killed by Al-Qaida suicide bombers. The interim government, led by Hamid Karzai, awarded him the title of 'Hero of the Nation'. Abdul Rab Rasul Sayyaf was elected as a member of parliament in 2005. In 2014, he was a candidate for the Afghanistan presidential election. The one-time Chief Executive of Afghanistan, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, served as Massoud’s spokesperson.

Bamyan, Afghanistan
A Hazara woman collects grain to stock up for the coming winter in the Band-e-Amir area of Bamyan, Afghanistan

Young boys at the Tahe-Maskan orphanage in Kabul, Afghanistan.

The Dancing Boys (1): Shukur smokes a cigarette before going to the dance floor
Shukur, 21 years old, was kidnapped in Kabul when he was 12 years old and taken to Kunduz where he was kept as a “Dancing Boy” or Bacha Bereesh (lit. Boys without Beards). After five years he escaped and returned to Kabul where he now earns a living working as a dancer.

Bacha Bazi is the name of a cultural tradition where young boys, dressed as women, dance for men as entertainment. The young boys are kept by powerful men to dress as women and dance at all-male parties. The boys will often also become “wives” for the men.

Decades of warfare have fractured Afghanistan’s society making abuses of power, such as the tradition of Bacha Bazi, more common. Many young boys are kidnapped and forced into the practice. Homeless children and orphans are especially vulnerable.

The Dancing Boys (2): Shukur dancing at a Kabul party is joined on the dancefloor by a man from the crowd

The Dancing Boys (3): Former Bacha Bereesh, Fridoon
Fridoon, 13-years-old, is from Logar province. He was a small child when his mother died, and his father remarried. His abusive stepmother kicked him out of home, and he was forced to live on the streets, where he became addicted to sniffing glue. One day he met a man who started taking him to parties and he soon found himself kept as a Bacha Bereesh. After two years he escaped. But now he is homeless in Kabul and addicted to heroin.

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