A young female burn patient undergoing treatment at Herat Hospital, Afghanistan. The woman, Shahima, 25, whose face is covered with a veil to protect her from flying insects, is one of at least a dozen women who end up in the burn department of the hospital each week after setting themselves alight to protest women’s conditions in tradition-bound, male-dominated Afghanistan, or to escape domestic violence and in some cases total submission to their new stepfamily.
October, 2004
Photo by: Alexandra Boulat / VII