AUTHOR Simon Urwin
ALI SHAH FARHANG, LE CHAMPION AFGHAN DES PISTES DE SKI
D’une beauté frappante, digne d’une star de cinéma, Ali Shah Farhang arrive sur sa moto et nous nous asseyons pour bavarder au bord des ruines d’un ancien hôtel, non loin des niches du 6ème siècle qui abritaient les immenses bouddhas que les talibans ont dynamités en 2001.
Sri Lanka : Lady Di & le mineur
Au cœur du « pays des joyaux » du Sri Lanka, Amaranth — musclé, déterminé et plein d’espoir — plonge chaque jour dans les entrailles de la terre à la recherche de saphirs, comme celui qui orna jadis la bague de fiançailles de Lady Diana. Entre rituels, dangers quotidiens et rêves de fortune, son histoire dévoile un monde où la foi, la chance et le labeur façonnent l’existence des mineurs.
The Afghan Athletes & the Ski slope Champion
These homoerotic hoardings, designed to catch the eye of every passing bodybuilding fanatic, are all the more surprising in a land where any kind of sport is often decried as un-Islamic by the many holier-than-thou who consider it morally corrupt and too ‘Western’.
Tile Giant
Explore the fascinating connection between art and tiles in Afghanistan’s historic tile factory, where craftsmanship meets spirituality.
Afghanistan: a burqa for Barbie
The burqa has been ‘on trend’ here for hundreds of years. Like the local equivalent of a Hermès scarf or a Louboutin red heel, it first became popular as a status symbol, with the impractical billowing folds of the upturned shuttlecock clearly signalling that the wearer was a wealthier Metropolitan woman who’d never be seen dead working in the fields like her poorer Afghan sisters.
Sri Lanka: Lady Di & The Miner
n Sri Lanka’s legendary “jewel country,” Amaranth—lean, fearless and full of hope—descends each day into the earth in search of sapphires like the one that once adorned Lady Diana’s ring. Between superstition, danger and dreams of fortune, his story reveals a world where faith, sacrifice and the chance of a life-changing discovery shape every moment underground.