TEDGlobal 2011
Monika Bulaj: The hidden light of Afghanistan
La lumière cachée d'Afghanistan
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La photographe Monika Bulaj partage des images intimes et puissantes d'Afghanistan, de vie domestique, de rituels, d'hommes et de femmes. Derrière les gros titres, qu'est-ce que le monde sait vraiment de cet endroit ?
Monika Bulaj - Photographer
Monika Bulaj’s stunning, painting-like photographs blur religious and cultural divisions, exploding stereotypes. She is a TED Fellow. Full bio
Monika Bulaj’s stunning, painting-like photographs blur religious and cultural divisions, exploding stereotypes. She is a TED Fellow. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:15
My travels to Afghanistan
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Mes voyages en Afghanistan
00:18
began many, many years ago
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ont commencé il y a bien des années
00:21
on the eastern border of my country,
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sur la frontière est de mon pays
00:24
my homeland, Poland.
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ma patrie, la Pologne.
00:27
I was walking through the forests
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Je marchais à travers les forêts
00:29
of my grandmother's tales.
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des contes de ma grand-mère.
00:33
A land where every field hides a grave,
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Une terre où chaque champ cache une tombe,
00:38
where millions of people
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où des millions de gens
00:40
have been deported or killed
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ont été déportés ou tués
00:43
in the 20th century.
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au 20ème siècle
00:46
Behind the destruction,
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Derrière la destruction,
00:48
I found a soul of places.
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j’ai trouvé une âme de lieux.
00:51
I met humble people.
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J’ai rencontré des gens humbles.
00:53
I heard their prayer
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J’ai entendu leur prière
00:55
and ate their bread.
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et j’ai mangé leur pain.
00:57
Then I have been walking East for 20 years --
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Et puis, j’ai marché vers l’est pendant 20 ans,
01:02
from Eastern Europe to Central Asia --
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de l’Europe de l’Est à l’Asie Centrale,
01:05
through the Caucasus Mountains,
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en traversant les montagnes du Caucase,
01:07
Middle East,
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au Moyen Orient,
01:09
North Africa,
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en Afrique du Nord,
01:11
Russia.
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en Russie
01:13
And I ever met more humble people.
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Et j’ai rencontré encore plus de gens humbles.
01:17
And I shared their bread and their prayer.
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Et j’ai partagé leur pain et leur prière.
01:20
This is why I went to Afghanistan.
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C’est pourquoi je suis allée en Afghanistan.
01:23
One day, I crossed the bridge
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Un jour, j’ai traversé le pont
01:27
over the Oxus River.
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sur la rivière Oxus.
01:29
I was alone on foot.
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J’étais seule et à pied.
01:31
And the Afghan soldier was so surprised to see me
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Et le soldat afghan a été si surpris de me voir
01:33
that he forgot to stamp my passport.
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qu’il a oublié de tamponner mon passeport.
01:36
But he gave me a cup of tea.
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Mais il m’a offert une tasse de thé.
01:38
And I understood
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Et j’ai compris
01:40
that his surprise was my protection.
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que sa surprise était ma protection.
01:43
So I have been walking and traveling,
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Et donc je marche et je voyage,
01:46
by horses, by yak, by truck, by hitchhiking,
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à dos de cheval, de yack, en camion, en auto-stop,
01:49
from Iran's border
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de la frontière iranienne
01:51
to the bottom, to the edge of the Wakhan Corridor.
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au fond, au bord du couloir de Wakhan.
01:56
And in this way
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Et c’est ainsi que
01:58
I could find noor, the hidden light of Afghanistan.
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j’ai pu trouver noor, la lumière cachée d’Afghanistan.
02:05
My only weapon
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Ma seule arme,
02:07
was my notebook and my Leica.
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c'était mon petit carnet et mon Leica.
02:12
I heard prayers of the Sufi --
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J'ai entendue les prières des Sufis,
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humble Muslims,
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des musulmans humbles,
02:16
hated by the Taliban.
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détestés des talibans.
02:18
Hidden river,
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Rivière cachée,
02:20
interconnected with the mysticism
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inter-connectée avec le mysticisme
02:22
from Gibraltar to India.
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de Gibraltar à l’Inde
02:25
The mosque where the respectful foreigner
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La mosquée où l’étranger respectueux
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is showered with blessings
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est douché de bénédictions
02:32
and with tears,
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et de larmes,
02:35
and welcomed as a gift.
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et accueilli comme un cadeau.
02:39
What do we know
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Que savons-nous
02:41
about the country and the people
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du pays et des gens
02:43
that we pretend to protect,
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que nous prétendons protéger,
02:46
about the villages
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des villages
02:49
where the only one medicine
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où le seul médicament
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to kill the pain and to stop the hunger
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contre la douleur et la faim
02:53
is opium?
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est l’opium?
02:55
These are opium-addicted people
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Voici des gens drogués à l’opium
02:58
on the roofs of Kabul
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sur les toits de Kaboul,
03:01
10 years after the beginning of our war.
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10 ans après le début de la guerre.
03:05
These are the nomad girls
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Voici des filles nomades
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who became prostitutes for Afghan businessmen.
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qui sont devenues prostituées pour des hommes d’affaires afghans.
03:12
What do we know about the women
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Que savons-nous des femmes
03:14
10 years after the war?
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10 ans après la guerre?
03:16
Clothed in this nylon bag,
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Habillées de ce sac de nylon,
03:18
made in China,
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fabriqué en Chine,
03:20
with the name of burqa.
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et qu’on appelle burqua.
03:24
I saw one day,
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Un jour, j’ai vu
03:26
the largest school in Afghanistan,
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la plus grande école d’Afghanistan,
03:29
a girls' school.
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une école de filles.
03:31
13,000 girls
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13 000 filles
03:34
studying here
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qui étudient ici
03:38
in the rooms underground,
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dans les salles souterraines,
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full of scorpions.
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pleines de scorpions.
03:44
And their love [for studying]
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Et leur amour d’apprendre
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was so big that I cried.
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était si grande que j’en ai pleuré.
03:52
What do we know
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Que savons-nous
03:54
about the death threats by the Taliban
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des menaces de mort proférées par les Talibans,
03:57
nailed on the doors
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clouées sur les portes
03:59
of the people who dare to send their daughters to school as in Balkh?
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des gens qui osent envoyer leurs filles à l’école comme à Balkh?
04:05
The region is not secure, but full of the Taliban,
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La région n’est pas stable, mais pleine des talibans,
04:08
and they did it.
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et ils l’ont fait.
04:10
My aim is to give a voice
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Mon but est de donner une voix
04:12
to the silent people,
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aux gens silencieux,
04:15
to show the hidden lights
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de montrer les lumières cachées
04:19
behind the curtain of the great game,
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derrière le rideau du grand jeu,
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the small worlds ignored by the media
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les petits mondes ignorées des médias
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and the prophets of a global conflict.
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et les prophètes d’un conflit mondial.
04:27
Thanks.
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Merci.
04:29
(Applause)
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(Applaudissements)
Reviewed by Iwona Chałuś (Yvonne Chalus)
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Monika Bulaj - PhotographerMonika Bulaj’s stunning, painting-like photographs blur religious and cultural divisions, exploding stereotypes. She is a TED Fellow.
Why you should listen
Monika Bulaj is a photographer and writer who explores -- in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe -- the dim areas of monotheism, where the sacred can transcend borders: Bonfires, dances, cults of the dead, possession rites. She describes outskirts and deserts, frontiers and megalopolis. And the world of the last ones: nomads, farmers, immigrants, outcasts, untouchables and impure.
Her photos and reportaging have been published by GEO, National Geographic (Italy), La Repubblica, periodicals by Gruppo Espresso and Rcs, Courrier International, Gazeta Wyborcza (Poland), Internazionale, Freundin, Teatr (Poland) and other international magazines.
She has displayed more than 50 personal exibitions in Italy, Germany, Ungheria, Bulgaria, Egypt.
Her books include Libya felix, a travel into Sufism and the world of the Tuaregh; Figli di Noè, on minorities and faiths in Azerbaijian; Rebecca e la pioggia, on the nomadic tribe of the Dinka of South Sudan; Gerusalemme perduta with Paolo Rumiz, the special correspondent of La Repubblica, on the pellegrinage in the research of the Eastern Christians; Genti di Dio, viaggio nell'Altra Europa, a synthesis of 20 years of research in East Europe and Israel, and her latest book, Bozy ludzie.
She has screenwritten documentaries, among which is the movie Romani Rat (2002) by M. Orlandi, on the Holocaust of the Roms, with the contribution of the Shoah Visual History Foundation. She's the director, photography director, and screenwriter of the documentary Figli di Noè, about the villages of Caucasus on the border between Dagestan and Azerbaigian.
Bulaj is a TED Fellow. Read TED's Q&A with Monika Bulaj >>
Monika Bulaj | Speaker | TED.com