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The Story of Hope
Thomas Lee

Afghanistan is back in the news.  It is “the other war” that presidential candidates 
mention in their debates.  It is The Kite Runner.  It is the 23 South Korean 
missionaries kidnapped near Kandahar by the Taliban.  It is Osama Bin Laden and 
September 11.  To Americans, it could be all of the above, but rarely is it a quarter-
century of struggle during consecutive wars, fear of violence, and devastated 
economy.  To Afghans, that is both the memory and reality of their homeland 
entering 2008. 
Arzu, meaning "hope" in Dari, is a Chicago-based non-profit organization that has 
worked in Afghanistan since 2004 to help employ and educate women through 
sourcing and selling rugs that they weave.  For illiterate, underprivileged Afghan 
women, weaving is often their only option to generate income in a culturally 
acceptable way.  To date, Arzu has enrolled almost 700 women weavers, or 230 
families, in the Kabul, Bamyan, and Andkhoi districts.  In order to become an Arzu 
weaver, the women must sign a social contract, agreeing to register their children in 
school and themselves in literacy classes.  In return, Arzu provides these literacy 
programs and access to health care, and pays weavers fair market value for their 
work as well as a 50% bonus for the completion of each rug.  Profits from the rug 
sales in the United States allow Arzu to cover its costs and to expand the project.
Arzu’s work—blending private and public sector activities to empower women in 
remote villages—has so far yielded a sustainable aid operation in a nation 
contending with the resurgence of the Taliban, an addiction to the opium trade, and 
the plight of returning refugees.  It has demonstrated that perhaps Afghanistan’s 
greatest hope lies in the gradual undertaking of many small projects.

Thomas Lee, a journalist-artist, meanders between the East and the West, seeking 
inspiration for his work.  He has completed projects in Afghanistan, Uganda, the 
United States, and China.  His work has been published in The New York Times, 
International Herald Tribune, PDN, American Photo, and NEED, among other U.S. 
and international publications.  

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The fall of the Taliban led to Afghanistan’s first democratically elected legislature, but in a land 
scarred by more than two decades of war, Afghan people still face tremendous challenges: a 
devastated economy, drug trafficking, the plight of returned refugees, and lingering insecurity due to 
the resistance of warlords and Taliban remnants.

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Afghan children play in the war-torn street of Kabul, Afghanistan, July 2006.  Sitting at the foot of the 
Hindu Kush mountains, the flat, brown, dusty capital is slowly being rebuilt.  Signs of violence, 
however, still prevail in the streetscape.

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The gatekeeper of a building compound in Kabul, Afghanistan, June 2006.  Electricity is unstable; 
Afghans use gas lamps during blackouts, which may happen several times a day.

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The cannon of a burnt-out tank, most likely a relic of the war against the Soviet Union, lies along the 
valley road of Bamiyan, Afghanistan, June 2006.  Burnt-out tanks can be seen in unexpected places: 
along village sidewalks, in vegetable fields, or in rivers.  They continue to dot the countryside because 
the money and motivation to dispose of them are luxuries that many parts of Afghanistan cannot 
afford. 

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A construction site in Kabul, Afghanistan, June 2006.

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An Afghan child of an Arzu weaver family, Bamiyan, Afghanistan, June 2006.  Bamyan, the location 
of one of Arzu's three projects and the site where the famous Buddha statues once stood, is located in 
the rolling mountains northwest of Kabul.  Arzu's 70 weaver families in this region are recent 
returnees from refugee camps in Iran and Pakistan who have had to rebuild their lives completely.  
Many only recently moved into mud and straw houses after living in UN tents.

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Arzu weaver Kubra and her family at their home loom in District 10 outside Kabul, Afghanistan, July 
2006.  Arzu helps 31 weaver families in this impoverished district.  The weavers live in one-room 
rented homes, the Kabul equivalent of Baltimore row houses.  The houses are outfitted with common 
courtyards for shared use of a toilet, a kitchen, a laundry area, and a well for water.

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Wool storage at Arzu's Kabul office, Afghanistan, July 2006.  

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One of Arzu's weaver villages, Dragon Valley, Bamiyan, Afghanistan, June 2006.

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An Arzu weaver at her loom, Bamiyan, Afghanistan, June 2006.

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An Arzu weaver shifts a loom bar to reposition a rug being woven, Bamiyan, Afghanistan, June 2006.

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Afghan men of Shash Pul, a weaver village, gather for a meeting with Arzu workers, Bamiyan, 
Afghanistan, June 2006.  There is an eagerness to re-establish a sense of community in the weaver 
village, perhaps because the returnees have experienced similar tribulations; each of the families lost 
at least one loved one under the Taliban.

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An Afghan household in Dragon Valley, one of Arzu's weaver villages, Bamiyan, Afghanistan, June 
2006.

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A young Afghan man weaves at his loom, Bamiyan, Afghanistan, June 2006.

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Afghan children transform war remnants like cannons and burnt trucks into playgrounds in 
Bamiyan, Afghanistan, June 2006.

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	Photo Essay
	The Story of Hope