NPPA: Best of Photojournalism 2007: Still Photography Winners: Local Portrait and Personality

1st Place: : 8-year-old Afghan student, Kamilah, sits in one of Cheplany Primary School’s burned out classrooms in Dand, a small rural village south of Kandahar city. Dand is the home district of Afghan President, Hamid Karzai. Following the school’s destruction in May 2006, one of the school’s head teachers was implicated in the burning through old ties to the Taliban. But the school’s headmaster has no doubt it was the Taliban themselves who are responsible. The school was built by a Japanese non-governmental organization in 2004. School officials say that the students will go back to school despite the loss of the building, reminding their students that before the school was built, students’ classes were held in a field. Afghanistan witnessed a Taliban resurgence that began in spring 2006 in the southern provinces, their strongest show of force since they lost power in the country in 2001. Despite increased military efforts in the south, the Taliban continue to grow and strengthen, effectively fighting coalition forces, and raising concerns about Afghanistan’s stability.

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BOP 2007 > Still Photography Winners > Local Portrait and Personality