In the western Afghan city of Herat, where there are no cinemas and women only venture outside wearing head-to-toe veils, Rahima, Rita, Mariam and Monirah are women of ill repute. But in following their dreams to become actresses in a country where just five years ago film and theatre were banned under the Taleban government, the women are mavericks trying to bring culture to their war-ravaged homeland.“To be an actress in Afghanistan doesn’t bring you anything but a bad reputation,” says Rita Hosseini. “But someone has to do it. What is a country without culture, without stories to make us dream, without cinema?” asks the widow who tints her hair and lines her almond eyes with dark khol.
Hosseini, who is raising two young children alone, makes her living as a dishwasher in a restaurant. Acting, she says, is just for fun. “Cinema is for art and for pleasure,” she says.