Women in red: Afghanistan's forgotten corner
Ethnic Wakhi women and children from Sarhad-e Broghil village. For more than 2,500 years, the Wahki people have inhabited the Wakhan Corridor. About 10,000 of them still live in the remote region.
For many, Afghanistan conjures up images of the devastation of war, poverty and the oppression of women. But this small corner of the country has remained virtually untouched by the decades of conflict.
The Wakhan Corridor
The mountainous Wakhan Corridor's isolation, stretching 220 miles out to the east of Afghanistan's primary northern territory, has allowed the people who inhabit it to preserve their traditional way of life.
Freelance journalist Malgorzata Skowronska's fascination with the world's lesser-known cultures led her to visit the Wakhan Corridor to learn more about the people who live there.
The Wakhi people
The women of a family from Kret village wait by the road to meet Skowronska. The Wakhi populate the Lower Wakhan, the western end of the corridor, where they live year-round. Often whole families, including aunts, uncles and cousins, live together under one roof. A home full of people helps to keep everyone warm during the harsh Afghan winters, when temperatures drop to -40 degrees.
The Wakhi people
A pair of siblings is seen in the high pastures of the Big Pamir mountains, where the Wakhi come at the end of the spring for their animals to graze. Whole families often migrate up the valley, setting up temporary shelter and not coming back down to their villages until winter approaches.
The Wakhi people
A young girl from Kopkul village looks on with curiosity as she washes a teapot in a freezing cold glacial stream coming down from a nearby valley.
The Wakhi people
People from Kopkul village gather at the guesthouse where Skowronska stayed, to say farewell.
The Wakhi people
A young woman from Sarhad-e Broghil, the last village in the region accessible by car, picks straw during the harvest season. Three mountain ranges -- the Hindukush, Karakoram and Pamir -- meet in the Wakhan Corridor, creating the so-called Pamir Knot, huge U-shaped valleys running between them which provide land for cultivation and pastures.
The Wakhi people
A young Wakhi girl on her way to school. Most boys and girls do attend school, and there is one in almost every village. Many of them were built by Greg Mortenson's Central Asia Institute.
The Kirgiz people
The eastern part of the Wakhan, in Afghanistan's Pamir Mountains, is populated by about 1,500 ethnic Kirgiz; nomadic herders of Turkish origin. They live in yurts and move seasonally to look for pastures for their animals. These young Kirgiz girls take care of animals, which were brought down from the mountains for the night.
The Kirgiz people
A Kirgiz woman from Bozai Gumbaz village. A year later, she had married and moved away to her husband's settlement deep in the Wakhan Corridor.
The Kirgiz people
Young Kirgiz girls from Bozai Gumbaz play by ruins of a house. This forgotten and isolated strip of land was of great interest toTsarist Russia and the British Empire during the 19th century, when they turned the corridor into a buffer zone separating their respective territories.
The Kirgiz people
Kirgiz girls from Bozai Gumbaz village walk next to barbed-wire left by the withdrawing Soviet army in 1989. The Wakhan Corridor did not see active fighting during the Afghan-Soviet conflict, but a Soviet military post was put in the area to keep watch over the Afghan - Pakistan border, used as a crossing point by mujihideen fighters.
The Kirgiz people
Women from Utsh Djelgha settlement get ready for a visit by relatives. In their hands they hold small gifts wrapped in pieces of bright, shiny fabric.
The Kirgiz people
Isolation forces women to be resourceful. Here, a young Kirgiz woman uses buttons to decorate her outfit along with other pieces of jewellery.
The Kirgiz people
A Kirgiz woman from Elgha Eli settlement prepares fresh buns, which are baked on yak dung. Life more than 13,000 feet above sea level is harsh and unpredictable. The lack of almost any vegetation, especially trees that could be used to fire a stove, means both Kirgiz and Wakhi use animal dung as fuel.
The Kirgiz people
Three women stop their daily chores to watch a passing caravan of yaks.
According to tradition, unmarried Kirgiz women wear a red veil; white is reserved for females who have already tied the knot.
The Kirgiz people
A young girl from Elgha Eli village. Despite its stunning beauty, Wakhan Corridor is a tough place to live. With public healthcare non-existent, mortality rates are high, particularly among women and children. Almost one third of children die before their fifth birthday here.
The Kirgiz people
A Kirgiz woman from Elgha Eli village milks a yak.
Animals are a primary source of food in the Corridor. Yak milk is turned into cream and cheese, but meat is used only for special occasions like weddings. Wheat and rice are brought into the area by trade.
The Kirgiz people
A mother and daughter from Bozai Gumbaz settlement hold photos of themselves taken by Skowronska during a previous first visit to the region.