Photos of this afternoon’s storm over Sydney.
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I Am Well Qualified To Talk About The Taliban. I Was Tortured By Them.
By Mohammed Hossein, with John Janson-Moore.
A moral obligation…
The future of Afghanistan and its people depend on it.
Mohammed Hossein has started a new life in Australia but still has strong links to Afghanistan (© John Janson-Moore)
I was 14 years of age when the Taliban first captured Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, on the 26th of September, 1996. Back then, as the Taliban entered the city, the people of Kabul were enormously excited, fed-up with years of civil war, corruption and anarchy. I can vividly remember the Taliban’s arrival. They were mostly wearing large black and white turbans, holding AK47s and shoulder-mounted missile launchers, rolling in on the backs of Toyota utes. At the time, they were warmly welcomed by the city’s residents who were hoping for stability and a chance to get on with their lives. I also remember the public execution of former president Mohammad Najibullah on the first day that the Taliban arrived into Kabul. It shocked me. It was the first of many executions I witnessed during my remaining years under the reign of the Taliban. The false dream that the Taliban were offering soon turned into a nightmare.
The speed of which the Taliban took Kabul 25 years ago, like the events of today, was rapid - almost miraculous. But Afghanistan - and especially the capital – was a different place back then. In 1996, the Taliban were seen by many of the residents of Kabul as “angels of peace”, who would bring justice, uproot corruption, and reinstate law and order. People were saying, “Angels are helping the Taliban defeat their enemies”. But as soon as the Taliban established themselves, they began rounding up their “enemies”. People were arbitrarily detained and tortured. Grounds for arrest ranged from having long hair, to having too short a beard, wearing jeans or even being too clean and tidy. The only way to secure freedom was to inform on others who had worked for the previous regime, or who belonged to different political parties. I personally witnessed numerous people who were seized by the Taliban, tortured and beaten to the point where they could not walk, before being released from captivity. The Taliban’s favourite method of torture was to tie people up and beat them with a metal cable. The beatings could go on for hours. And later, I witnessed worse – the chopping off of hands and shootings, scarring and traumatising people forever.
I was 15 when I was captured by the Taliban.
I was never asked a single question, nor told why I had been detained…
A 14 year-old Mohammed Hossein in Kabul, 1996, just months before the Taliban took Afghanistan’s capital the first time around (supplied)
My father was a medical doctor who, throughout his whole life, never associated with any political party. He was taken by the Taliban and accused of working for the previous regime and for spying for a foreign state. He was beaten, tortured and suffocated. But he survived and was later released. He was more than 70 years old.
I was 15 when I was also captured and tortured by the Taliban, not long after. I was never asked a single question, nor told why I had been detained, nor what I was accused of. My head was placed against my chest, my hands were tied around my neck and my feet were tied to my hands with rope. I felt like I was being forced into a ball. A number of Taliban began beating me with their AK47 butt stocks. I was beaten indiscriminately all over my body until I blacked out. Later, when I regained consciousness, I was accused of being the bodyguard of a warlord, who had lived a few blocks away from our residence. Not only had I never met this warlord but while he was in power, some years before, I would have been no older than 12 years of age – an impossibly young bodyguard. My father had to pay a large sum of money to free me from Taliban captivity.
They cannot be believed.
The Taliban brutally tortured and killed many innocent people…
Pictured, during a visit back to Kabul in 2003, after the fall of the Taliban to the US-led occupation (supplied)
These were not isolated cases. Rather, the Taliban brutally tortured and killed many innocent people throughout Afghanistan, committing countless massacres against minorities such as Hazara people in the central Afghanistan, Tajiks in North and other religious minorities such as Shia and Ismailia groups.
Mohammed Hossein fled the Taliban in 2001, arriving in Australia as a refugee (© John Janson-Moore)
Today, when I watch the nightly news about the fall of Kabul once more and receive information on the current situation in Afghanistan from my contacts back home, I sense the same strategy is being employed all over again by the Taliban 2.0. The difference is this time they are providing verbal assurances to the public and the rest of the world that they have changed and that they will respect human rights. They cannot be believed. There are already accounts of the Taliban identifying individuals who they perceive as their “enemies”. Reuters reports that Afghans accused of working with US-led forces are being rounded up across the country, and Amnesty International are monitoring a suspected massacre of Hazara men in Ghazni, in the southeast. Journalists have been beaten in Jalalabad province and elsewhere. These are only a few examples of the Taliban’s most recent abuses and demonstrate a complete disregard for their own commitment to painting themselves as a more moderate version of their former selves.
Mohammed Hossein with his family at their home in Sydney (© John Janson-Moore)
However, the reality on the ground today is not quite what the Taliban might like people to believe and very different to the events of 1996. The Taliban are short on personnel to control and implement their rule. Some districts are governed by no more than five Taliban soldiers. Large numbers of people from the provinces have fled their advance across the country, seeking refuge on the streets and parks of Kabul. Thousands cram the international airport, desperate to escape the new reign of terror. This time round, there has been no warm welcome for the Taliban in Kabul.
In short, the Taliban are a school of thought based on a belief that their power lies in installing fear in the hearts of the Afghan people. They are imposing a corrupted interpretation of Islam that prevents women from further education and that does not tolerate other minorities and ethnicities. In such an atmosphere, the best-case scenario for the educated and free thinkers, for minorities and for those who do not endorse or share the Taliban’s political philosophy, is that life will be unbearable. In the worst-case scenario, these people will be identified, tortured, imprisoned, beaten, humiliated, and even killed. I am well qualified to talk about the Taliban. I was tortured by them. And I do not want to see today’s people of Afghanistan experience what I suffered at the hands of the Taliban 25 years ago.
Mohammed Hossein hopes for a better life for his children (© John Janson-Moore)
As a moral obligation, all the Western countries that played a part in the past 20 years of the occupation of Afghanistan, must provide quotas to accept refugees escaping the brutal regime of the Taliban. Canada, the U.K. and the U.S. have each already committed to accepting tens of thousands of refugees. The Morrison government in Australia can do the same by offering at least 20,000 humanitarian places, similar in scale to what its predecessors offered during the Syrian turmoil in 2015. The future of Afghanistan and its people depend on it.
Mohammed Hossein fled Afghanistan in 2001 and arrived in Australia as a refugee. He now heads a construction business in Sydney’s northwest and is married with three young children. For the past 6 years, he has run a charity, Imran Care, that aims to aid and support at-risk people in Afghanistan, including widows, people with disabilities and orphans, through the provision of education, food and shelter.
To donate to Imran Care:
BSB: 062 317
A/N: 1099 2356
Account Name: Imran Care
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/584365991705048
COVID-19 has made juggling family and business even more challenging, as events unfold in Afghanistan (© John Janson-Moore)
Parklea Prison Protest Press Conference
Images from this afternoon’s press conference by Aboriginal representatives, who gave context to Monday’s Parklea Prison rooftop protest. Yesterday, the prison’s heavily armed Immediate Response Team fired tear gas on inmates who were protesting against racism and other conditions inside the jail. The protesters spelt out ‘BLM’ (Black Lives Matter) with bed sheets on the prison’s roof and ‘took a knee’ to underscore the claims of their protest, as helicopters circled overhead. The protest was eventually put down after dramatic scenes.
Wangkangurru man, Raymond Finn, whose son was detained inside Parklea at the time, reiterated that yesterday’s disturbance was a protest, rather than a riot, as characterised by the prison authorities and some media outlets.
The COVID-19 lockdown has compounded the severe conditions inside the prison, where families’ visiting rights have been restricted. Finn claimed that inmates, many of whom are Aboriginal, are brutalised as victims of racism by prison officers, and by the prison system in general. He demanded that Parklea - a private prison - stop operating for a profit from the misery of inmates, and urged for conditions to be improved. He saluted the inmates’ actions.
Aunty Rhonda Dixon-Grovenor, a Gadigal-Dhurg-Yuin Elder, also spoke at today’s press conference. She expressed deep concern about Aboriginal deaths in custody and the need to understand the systemic reasons why Aboriginal people are the most incarcerated people in the world.
Researcher and activist Paddy Gibson and State Greens MP, David Shoebridge, also spoke, both decrying past and ongoing complaints about racism and conditions that they say have been emerging from the Parklea Correctional Centre for some time. Yesterday’s rooftop action, it was suggested, was a result of the prison’s lack of response and accountability to these complaints.
Today’s press conference was held outside the offices of NSW Corrective Services in Sydney’s CBD.
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Rhoda Roberts, Dance Rites, 2016
I was looking through some old archives and came across this image of Rhoda Roberts at Dance Rites, 2016.
Rhoda Roberts, a Bundjalung woman, was Head of First Nations Programming at the Sydney Opera House, where she established amongst other things, ‘Dance Rites’, an annual First Nations dance competition, cultural celebration and gathering. She stepped down from the position after nine years earlier this year.
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Pelicans at Woy Woy
Pelicans at Woy Woy.
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Aboriginal Tent Embassy
A few photos from this weekend’s visit to the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra, Ngunnawal-Ngambri, with Firekeeper, Albert Hartnett, Areka Quinlin and Justice, the camp dog.
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Aboriginal Whale Watching
Thanks to Uncle Max Harrison, Dean Kelly and Calita Murray for guiding us through the open seas to teach us a little about Aboriginal culture and Guriwil, the whale.
We had whales approach within metres of our boat yesterday and provide us with a spectacular show. Thank-you Guriwil!
Still hard to believe that this is all just a 30 minute boat trip from the heart of Sydney, Gadigal.
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Global Action For Myanmar Spring Revolution - Rally
While the media spotlight here in Australia has moved away from February’s military coup in Myanmar, the Burmese community here in Sydney are still gathering, as they did on Saturday, to bring attention to the ongoing self-installed dictatorship. About 150 expats and supporters turned up to Hyde Park North to hear speeches and observe a minute’s silence for the hundreds that have been killed since the coup, and the thousands that have been ‘disappeared’.
Australian companies are still involved in business dealings in Myanmar, despite calls to divest.
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Stop Aboriginal Deaths In Custody - Eddie Murray 40 Years On
Yesterday, approximately 200 people turned up to Sydney Town Hall, Gadigal, to commemorate 40 years since the death in custody of Gomeroi man, Eddie Murray, 21, at the Wee Waa police station in 1981.
The gathering heard impassioned speeches from family members and others, who demanded justice and a re-opening of the investigation into Murray’s death, as well as discussion on the broader issues of Aboriginal rights, policing and sovereignty.
Also present were family members of: Lloyd Boney, whose death in police custody in Brewarrina in 1987 was instrumental in triggering the 1990 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody; Eddie Russell, who was found dead, apparently hanged, in his cell at the end of a seven-year prison sentence; Kingsley Dixon, whose death in an Adelaide jail was also the subject of the Royal Commission; and T.J. Hickey, who died during a police pursuit in Waterloo-Redfern.
The crowd marched from Town Hall to the office of the NSW Attorney General at Martin Place.
The rally came a day after the announcement that the family of David Dungay Junior, another Aboriginal man who was killed in custody, would take their case to the United Nations.
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Gadigal to Gaza - Rally
Around 1,000 people turned up to Town Hall today to bring attention to the plights of Aboriginal peoples and Palestinians, who face colonialism and repression in their respective homelands, from Gadigal to Gaza and beyond.
Speakers claimed it was the first solidarity rally of its kind.
This photographer was only able to stay and document the first hour of speeches and performance. The rally later moved from Town Hall to Belmore Park.
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Free Palestine Rally - Town Hall
Photographs of the third successive weekend ‘Free Palestine’ rally from yesterday at Sydney’s Town Hall, Gadigal country.
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Vigil for Palestine - Lakemba
A small but passionate group turned up, yesterday, to host a vigil for Palestine at Boulevard Reserve in Lakemba in Sydney’s south-west.
A tense cease-fire is currently holding in the Middle East after more than a week of violence that saw more than 200 Palestinians killed, including 65 children. 12 people were killed on the Israeli side.
The vigil comes after two large protests in Sydney in the previous weekends. Yesterday’s ceremony was followed by attendees of the vigil handing out leaflets to the public, advertising this Sunday’s rally for Palestine at Sydney Town Hall. A large crowd is expected.
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Free Palestine Rally
Yesterday’s ‘Free Palestine’ protest in Sydney, Gadigal, attracted around 10,000 people. The rally started at Hyde Park North, where speeches were made, followed by a theatre performance replicating the bombing of Gaza. Protesters then moved down Elizabeth Street to Belmore Park, where more speeches were made.
In the Middle East, a ceasefire was earlier this week agreed to by Hamas and Israel, which has halted the recent violence, despite a raid on the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem by Israeli police.
Sources say 232 Palestinians have been killed in the last 11 days, including 65 children, while 12 people have been killed on the Israeli side.
As of the posting of this entry, the cease fire was still holding.
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School Strike 4 Climate Action Rally
Despite rain, a large crowd of about 10,000-15,000 turned up to yesterday’s climate rally, organised and led mostly by school students.
The main focus of the rally was opposition to the Federal Government’s so-called ‘gas-led recovery’.
First Nations speakers spoke out against the desecration of their traditional lands, as a result of extractive industries, particularly the proposed Santos gas fields in the Pilliga on Gomeroi lands in Northern NSW.
Protesters marched from Sydney Town Hall to Prince Alfred Park.
It was the first School Strike 4 Climate rally held since the onset of the pandemic.
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Al Nakbar - 73 Years On
Yesterday, around 10,000 people turned up at Sydney Town Hall, Gadigal, to commemorate Al Nakbar and to protest the escalating violence in Israel/Palestine.
Al Nakbar, or ‘The Catastrophe’, is held every 15th of May and marks the date of the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, and the resulting removal of Palestinian homelands. It has led to displacement of millions of Palestinians and numerous wars, including the Intifada, or ‘uprising’.
Last week, during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, Israeli police raided the Al-Aqsa mosque, firing tear gas and injuring hundreds, after a recent spate of Palestinian home acquisitions by Israeli settlers. Hamas responded by firing rockets into Israel from Gaza, killing up to nine people. Israeli Defence Forces retaliated with airstrikes and ground troops. The Palestinian death toll is spiralling into the hundreds. Yesterday, eight Palestinian children – all cousins – were killed in Israeli airstrikes.
An election has just been held in Israel, resulting in a deadlock. The former Prime Minister, Netanyahu, is currently trying to cling to power.
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Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody - 30 Years On
Images from yesterday's “30 Years Still No Justice, Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody” events: a discussion and forum at the University of Technology Sydney facilitated by Jumbunna House, and a rally at Railway Square.
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30 Years On: Aboriginal Deaths In Custody Report
Up to 3,000 people turned up at Sydney Town Hall, Gadigal, to protest against ongoing Aboriginal deaths in custody, which currently stands at at least 474 since the report of the Royal Commission was handed down 30 years ago.
There have been 5 deaths in the last month.
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Vision 2020, Head On Festival, Selection - Ramadan Online
Honoured to have my image, Ramadan Online, selected as a part of the Vision 2020 Exhibition as part of the Head On Photo Festival. The exhibition will travel regionally, launching at the Southern Highlands Artisans Collective (The SHAC) on the 1st of May 2021 and finishing up in Sydney at the Head On Festival in November.
Photo description:
Imam Enes Özkan, from the Auburn Gallipoli Mosque, livestreams verses from the Quran over Facebook during last year’s Ramadan, which coincided with special COVID-19 health orders that shut down all places of worship across Sydney. It was the first time in the mosque’s history that no in-person services were provided during Ramadan.
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Selection as a Finalist for the National Photographic Portrait Prize
Really humbled to have had one of my photos selected as a finalist for the National Photographic Portrait Prize, here in Australia.
My image, which is embargoed until the exhibition’s launch, will show along side 80 other amazing photographs at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra from the 30th of July until November 2021.
Candlelight Vigil for Burmese Protestors Killed and Detained
This evening, thousands of Sydney’s Burmese community turned out at Sydney Town Hall for a candlelight vigil for the nearly 350 people that have been killed so far during recent protests against the military junta’s coup in Myanmar last month.
Dozens were killed earlier today, a date marking Armed Forces Day in Myanmar, making it the deadliest day since the February 1 coup. According to protestors, an additional 2,000 people have been arbitrarily detained, including leader Aung San Suu Kyi, while 5,000 others have been ‘disappeared’.
Speakers at today’s vigil in Sydney called for greater action by the Australian Government to pressure the junta, such as imposing tougher sanctions, and for Australian corporations and mining companies to divest from the country and cut ties with the Burmese military regime altogether.
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