The Lovers (36 page)

Snow finches are best trapped after a fresh snowfall, because charms of them forage for food on their feet but dislike snow. So the trappers scrape the snow from an area twenty or thirty yards in diameter and then lay out fish line that is so fine the birds cannot see it and sprinkle a little grain around. Every few inches there is a loop in the fish line with a slipknot, and when the birds step into it and get tangled up, the knot inevitably cinches closed until soon a slew of the birds are hopping about not aware at first that they have been made prisoners. Ali and his brothers scooped up eighteen snow finches that day and trudged home extremely pleased with themselves. “We’re such good friends, my brothers and I,” said Ali, “that people don’t even think we’re brothers.” Zakia stood near the guard dog in the unfinished gateway of their home and rewarded their return with her remarkable smile. Soon the mud house of Mohammad Anwar was filled with the chatter of the young men amid the cheery-sounding songs of their captives. Even indoors everyone’s breath exhaled frosty clouds into the thin mountain air. More than a month of winter still lay ahead.

PHOTO SECTION

Dead Father’s Daughter:
Zakia’s family came from Kham-e-Kalak village, Bamiyan Province, adjoining Surkh Dar, where donkeys were their only form of transport. (
Quilty
)

Under the Gaze of the Buddhas:
The Bamiyan Valley from the vantage point of the Great Buddha Solsal, photographed from inside the niche where the Buddha’s head had been. The shelter in Bamiyan from which Zakia escaped is on the upper plateau at the foot of the brown foothills in the center. (
Sánchez
)

Honor Hunters:
Zakia’s father, Zaman, with three of his younger children at his home in Kham-e-Kalak, before he moved to Kabul to hunt down his daughter. (
Lima
)

“If you love me, I also love you”:
Ali’s father, Mohammad Anwar. (
Sánchez
)

Mystery Benefactor:
Fatima Kazimi, then the head of the ministry of women’s affairs in Bamiyan Province, who rescued Zakia from her family and later fled Afghanistan, successfully winning asylum in the United States for helping the lovers. (
Lima
)

Dead Father’s Daughter:
The first
New York Times
portrait of Zakia, February 2014, while she was still held in the Bamiyan shelter. (
Lima
)

A Beautiful Place to Hide:
The home of Zahra and Haji Abdul Hamid in Kham-e Bazargan, where Zakia and Ali twice hid while fleeing. (
Sánchez
)

Zakia Makes Her Move:
This picture of Zakia and Ali on the run, first published in the
New York Times
, has become iconic, with many Afghan artists painting versions of it. (
Sánchez
)

Where did they ever get this idea?
Holding hands is not something often done in Afghanistan, even among married couples and especially not in public. (
Sánchez
)

The Irreconcilables:
The Chindawul neighborhood in Kabul, where the couple hid until Ali’s arrest. In this view, the Pamir Cinema building is the pale yellow building in the foreground; Ali was captured nearby. (
Quilty
)