“The Fight for Justice in Afghanistan: The Memory Box Project” is on exhibit in the Library’s Davis Lounge until 10 May. The Project, a memorial initiated by the Afghanistan Human Rights and Democracy Organization (AHRDO), provides a space for sharing the stories of Afghan war victims and amplifies their call for justice and reconciliation in Afghanistan. 

Through the Project, survivors who lost family members during decades of conflict were invited to create Memory Boxes, collections of personal objects from and in remembrance of their loved ones. The current exhibition on display in the Davis Lounge presents nine such Boxes, spanning a period between 1978 and 2016, and offers powerful testimonies of the lives of victims and survivors, such as the story of Farida, whose 18-year-old brother was killed during fighting between Afghanistan’s last Communist president, Dr Mohammad Najibullah, and the Mujahidin.

“My mother cried and mourned almost every day, she could not accept that Qudratullah was gone and that he would never come back. The endless crying blurred her vision”.

The Memory Boxes are part of a much larger memorial from the newly established Afghanistan Center for Memory and Dialogue (ACMD). The Project took eight years to create and contains more than 4,000 objects and stories.

“The 40-year war in Afghanistan has brought immense suffering and caused the forced displacement of millions of people”, said Professor Monsutti. “Afghans have nevertheless kept the capacity to mobilise against violence and tell stories that restore our faith in humanity.”

On 10 May at 17:00, for the close of the exhibition, Alessandro Monsutti, Professor of Anthropology and Sociology; Sophia Milosevic Bijleveld, exhibition Curator and Memorialisation Specialist for the ACMD; and Sima Dakkus Rassoul, Writer, Translator, Stage Director and Founder of XANNDA Théâtre, will hold a presentation of the Memory Box Project in Auditorium A2, followed by a tour of the exhibition in the Lounge.

The Memory Box Project was previously featured in an article by The New York Times: “‘Memory Boxes’ Offer Poignant Reminders of Afghan Lives Lost to Violence”.