Titled Afghanistan: Blossoming out of Destruction>, the exhibition of 98 photographs is the outcome of amateur photography of two familiar names in Bangladesh's theatrical scene--Aly Zaker and Shankor Sawjal. Besides their professional job--communication campaigning to create awareness in Salt Iodation and Safe Motherhood Initiatives among Afghan people--the two Asiatic-personnel also took photographs of the war-stricken country and its people.

They now share their experiences of Afghanistan--'a land starkly beautiful...Even decades of destructive war had not been able to destroy the beauty,' as Sara Zaker, an Asiatic Social team-member, puts it.

Conditioned by the images carried out by the media throughout the world, when the Asiatic team arrived in Afghanistan, they discovered a 'special feeling for Bangladesh' there. The gestures of deep gratitude were rooted in the hearts of Afghan people for the 'token consignment of relief sent to a famine-racked land when our newly-liberated country was itself struggling to find its feet'. Aly Zaker terms their series of visits as 'an affair of the heart.'

As a theatre activist, Zaker said at the inauguration ceremony of the exhibition, 'what shocked me most was the ruined condition of the Theatre Centre in Kabul--the bomb-shelled walls.' Afghanistan has one of the best theatres on the east side of Suez, he said addressing the Ambassador of Afghanistan to Bangladesh, Akmal Ghani, who was present at the ceremony and inaugurated the exhibition.

Shankar Sawjal said initially he had been afraid of going to Afghanistan--surely an impression created by the preconceived notion of the country as 'a land of Taliban'. But once he was there, he was amazed by its beauty. Sawjal said that most of the photographs were taken from vehicles they were travelling by as 'we were not able to get down from our car for fear of hidden mines scattered all over the rocky land of Afghanistan,' he said. He said he wished to go back to Afghanistan time and again.

Photographs of Afghanistan show the vestiges of ruined places like the building of the Ministry of Culture, a cinema theatre, ravaged walls of the Theatre Centre, the Pagman Gate, the Kabul airport and thousands of civil establishments. Amid this destruction, however, stand signs of new hopes and enthusiasm: Young girls going to schools, wild flowers blossoming out of the wreckage, and Chinar trees covered in new foliage.

The social picture of the country is also reflected in the works. People are engaged in self-established business like money-exchange, selling newspapers however scanty in number. Children sell flowers by the roadside.

Nevertheless, there are fears still lurking around unknown corners: the minefields still take lives, maim people for the rest of their life. Red and white stones are often seen marking the minefields so that people can avoid those areas. The photographs at the exhibition are for sale, and the proceedings will go to the funds for the treatment of the mine-victims.

The only disconcerting feature about the exhibition is that the photographs do not bear the photographers' names.