Kiana Hayeri

Photographer

Biography 

Kiana Hayeri (b.1988) grew up in Tehran, Iran, and moved to Toronto, Canada as a teenager. Having taken up photography to bridge cultural and linguistic gaps, her work often explores topics such as migration, adolescence, identity and sexuality in war-torn countries. She is currently based in Sarajevo, covering stories from Afghanistan (where she lived for eight years), to the Balkans, and beyond. 

Hayeri has received numerous awards, including the Tim Hetherington Visionary Award (2020), the James Foley Award for Conflict Reporting (2020), the Robert Capa Gold Medal (2021), and the Leica Oskar Barnack Award (2022). She was part of The New York Times team that won The Hal Boyle Award (2022) and was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting. Hayeri is laureate of the 14th Carmignac Photojournalism Award, devoted to the condition of women and girls in Afghanistan. 

In 2024, she published a photobook When Cages Fly which was shortlisted for Rencontres d’Arles Author Book Award, IPA Photobook Awards and was a finalist for Lucie Photobook Award, APhF Pick:24 Book Award and won POY Photobook of the year.

Hayeri is a Senior TED fellow, a National Geographic Explorer grantee, and a regular contributor to The New York Times. 

Photos: No Woman's Land

In Afghanistan, the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban government denies women access to education beyond elementary school, bars them from most work outside the home, and in some regions forbids them from leaving home without a male guardian, or with their face uncovered. The spaces where women once gathered freely – schools, parks, gyms, beauty salons, and offices – are now off limits.

Despite these restrictions, Afghan women find subtle but powerful ways to resist. Their defiance unfolds quietly behind closed doors: in homes, secret classrooms, and in private celebrations.