Protecting Beauty

In the article, Makhmalbaf is said to have described Afghanistan as a country without an image. An image other than the Taliban described on CNN with statistics. Varzi criticizes Makhmalbaf for failing to make Kandahar a film to induce empathy and a call to action against the terrors of warfare, but praises it for being a film with beautiful pictures and a thought-provoking alternative vision of a place we know little about. Isn't this a contradiction? In showing us something "thought-provoking" and "beautiful" we automatically get in touch with our morality. Beauty is something we want to protect and the thoughts provoked are those of the contrast to the injustices that we know. 

Something Varzi does not say much about is the attention paid to the image of women. She says to be a woman is a fate worse than death, and that they are destined to be faceless and unidentifiable. I don't see the burqas as a curse that women must accept, but rather an embrace of culture and tradition. These people live in a world of death, disease and hunger. Life is the most precious commodity and in order to make the most of life these women take some pride in their appearance. They are shown painting their nails, adorning themselves with bracelets, and even putting on makeup under their burqas of beautiful colours. We see that these items are the women's most precious possessions when bandits come steal their bundles and they fight and scream to keep them, risking their lives. Some may take offense to a woman's only role being her beauty, but beauty is something that needs to be protected, especially when everything that surrounds them is ugly and terrifying. An these women can take pride in their role as the guardians of the beautiful.

- steffie mongar