Red Blossoms

  • Dates
    2019 - Ongoing
  • Author
  • Topics Portrait, Social Issues, Documentary

"We left our home because we never knew if and what child would survive the long and cold winters in Big Pamir."

"The region is so lofty and cold that you do not even see any birds flying. And I must notice also that because of this great cold, fire does not burn so brightly, nor give out so much heat as usual, nor does it cook food so effectually",

from "The Travels of Marco Polo" by Marco Polo.

Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor is one of the remotest, high-altitude landscapes on earth. At the end of this isolated and arid land, from which the highest mountain ranges in the world radiate is the Pamir plateau (above 14.000 feet). The Pamir Kyrgyz are called one of the world's toughest people, whose life has developed in challenging nomadic conditions of harsh highlands in Afghanistan. Today some 1100 Afghan Kyrgyz live there, surrounded by high mountains and affected by the vicissitudes of history.

The future of the Pamir Kyrgyz has been discussed for many years. After a long preparatory phase, in mid-October 2017, the Kyrgyz government realized the repatriation of ethnic Kyrgyz spread in the Pamir Mountains of Afghanistan. Despite expensive administrative hurdles, a few families decided to take part in this political repatriation program and settled in the mountain town of Naryn in Kyrgyzstan. It was an outstanding program due to high labor migration from Kyrgyzstan to other countries. The political motivation seems to be more based on ethnic heritage, and the national newscasts repeated: 'Kyrgyz should return to the Kyrgyz Republic.'

After a long preparatory phase, in mid-October 2017, the Kyrgyz government started the repatriation program. It transferred several families of the Pamir Kyrgyz from Afghanistan to the Naryn region of Kyrgyzstan. Abdul Ghafoor (39) and his wife Dawlat Bibi (41) decided to be part of the Kyrgyz resettlement program hoping for a better future for their two daughters. At that time, they were 22 and 11 years old. In Afghanistan, Abdul Ghafoor was a shepherd. Being a shepherd on the "Roof of the world" (the term historically used to describe this region) was a tough job in the Afghan Big Pamir. Due to harsh living conditions and the bitter coldness in the Big Pamir, the family went through difficult times. When they heard about the resettlement program, they agreed immediately without any doubts. The daughters and the mother are the ones who particularly appreciate the changed life in Kyrgyzstan:

"In the Big Pamir, we never knew if and what child would survive the long and cold winters in Big Pamir."

© Irina Unruh - An abandoned train wagon from the Soviet-era stands in the mountains in Kyrgyzstan.
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An abandoned train wagon from the Soviet-era stands in the mountains in Kyrgyzstan.

© Irina Unruh - Image from the Red Blossoms photography project
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Kimya (24 years), with her ten-month-old son Sulaiman and her mother Dawlat Bibi (41 years), are standing in front of their new home in Naryn, Kyrgyzstan. Two years ago, Dawlat Bibi and her husband decided to be part of the Kyrgyz resettlement program for a better future for their children. They never knew if and who would survive the long and cold winters in the Big Pamir.

© Irina Unruh - Image from the Red Blossoms photography project
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Dawlat Bibi and her husband Abdul Ghafoor applied for themselves and their two daughters' passports for the first time only after deciding to leave Afghanistan and to be part of the Kyrgyz resettlement program for a better future for their two daughters Kimya and Anjer. Previously, they all had no documents.

© Irina Unruh - Image from the Red Blossoms photography project
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A view on the city Naryn in Kyrgyzstan. Naryn is the administrative center of Naryn Province, the largest and most mountainous province in Kyrgyzstan. Its estimated population was 40,000 as of January 2019, spread across leafy avenues along the banks of the Naryn River. Though not a large city, Naryn hosts several government offices, a Consular Section of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and a campus of the University of Central Asia. Naryn is the center of the most traditionally Kyrgyz region and the region with the coldest weather of Kyrgyzstan, which was one of the reasons why the Kyrgyz government has chosen this region as the first destination for the Pamir Kyrgyz from the resettlement program of 2017.

© Irina Unruh - Image from the Red Blossoms photography project
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Portrait of Kimya (24 years) in her traditional clothes brought from the Big Pamir. Most Afghan Kyrgyz women would decorate their traditional red clothes with pretty shiny things gathered over the years. Her white headdress is a sign of her marriage.

© Irina Unruh - Image from the Red Blossoms photography project
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Dawlat Bibi (41 years) is sitting on the floor in their new home in Naryn and telling about their children who died shortly after their birth. Dawlat Bibi lost three of her children due to harsh living conditions and the cold in Big Pamir, Afghanistan. Also, her oldest daughter Kimya lost her first child due to the cold.

© Irina Unruh - Image from the Red Blossoms photography project
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The high infant and maternal mortality rate was the main reason why Kimya's family decided to be part of the Kyrgyz resettlement program. The family described that the around eight-month-long winters were full of brutality. The mortality rate among Kyrgyz women during childbirth is unmercifully high and belongs to the highest worldwide. The Big Pamir in Afghanistan is a place with a 50% infant mortality rate. It means about 50% of children die before reaching the age of 5. The average life expectancy is only around 50 years old. Dawlat Bibi said: Death belonged to our daily life.

© Irina Unruh - Image from the Red Blossoms photography project
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The five-month-old daughter Cholponai is brought to sleep by her mother, Dawlat Bibi, at their new home in Naryn, Kyrgyzstan. Her birth weight was only 2kg. Her mother, however, had adequate medical support before and after the birth in Kyrgyzstan, so she was confident that her tender daughter would survive.

© Irina Unruh - Image from the Red Blossoms photography project
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Anjer (13 years) is reading in her school book in the Kyrgyz language. Shortly after they arrived in 2017, Anjer started to attend for the first time school. First, she got individual lessons with other Pamir Kyrgyz children from the Kyrgyz resettlement program. Meanwhile, she can read fluently in the Kyrgyz language and is attending a public school in Naryn.

© Irina Unruh - A building with a mural of a woman in national clothes is a few meters from the family home.
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A building with a mural of a woman in national clothes is a few meters from the family home.

© Irina Unruh - One of Anjer's classmates answers a question from her teacher.
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One of Anjer's classmates answers a question from her teacher.

© Irina Unruh - Image from the Red Blossoms photography project
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Class lessons with the teacher who teaches the Kyrgyz language in the class. Anjer quickly settled into her class and feels comfortable with her new classmates.

© Irina Unruh - Kimya (24 years) is holding her ten-month-old son Sulaiman and her mother Dawlat Bibi (41 years) is caressing her grandson.
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Kimya (24 years) is holding her ten-month-old son Sulaiman and her mother Dawlat Bibi (41 years) is caressing her grandson.

© Irina Unruh - Image from the Red Blossoms photography project
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Anjer (13 years) is running up the stairs with her two friends. She feels very comfortable in her new school because she made friends quickly. At school, she wears like most of the Kyrgyz girl white hair bands.

© Irina Unruh - Image from the Red Blossoms photography project
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Kimya and Sulaiman are taking a sunbath in front of their home in Naryn, Kyrgyzstan. Shortly before moving to Kyrgyzstan, Kimya lost her first newborn in the Big Pamir, Afghanistan, due to harsh living conditions and the cold in Big Pamir, Afghanistan. She is grateful her parents decided to be part of the Kyrgyz resettlement program for a better future for her and her sister: "In the Big Pamir, we never knew if and what child would survive the long and cold winters in Big Pamir."

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