On August 22, a week after Kabul fell to Taliban control and days after three men, desperate to escape the country, fell to their deaths after clinging to a US military aircraft, Sara Rahmani shared a painting that quickly went viral.
Executed in stark black and white, with a single diagonal stripe of bold colour bisecting the canvas, the painting captures a young Afghan girl, smiling as a tear drops from her right eye.
In the black-and-white sections of the painting, silhouetted figures fall to the ground as a plane soars overhead. One man, amid a faceless crowd, passes a swaddled baby to a soldier across coils of barbed wire.
I got an idea that even if we are in dark days of our lives and our country ... we still have a ray of hope
Sara Rahmani,
artist
In the coloured section of the image, which includes the girl’s close-lipped smile, the wing of the plane transforms into the wing of a dove and a woman in bright Afghan clothing dances beside another who is writing the word “peace” in Farsi.
“I always wanted to show the best pictures of my country through my artworks, but today nothing is left for us. We went back 20 years ago,” Rahmani wrote on Instagram. “My dear Afghanistan … I’m sorry for the world’s silence.”
Rahmani started the painting before Afghanistan fell to Taliban control. “I was just planning to paint the portrait of that little Afghan girl. I like the eyes and the way she was smiling,” she says.
“Then, when it all happened in one week, we had a protest here in San Diego so I wanted to create something really effective to show our emotions, what we were going through those couple of days.”
Rahmani, 23, has lived in San Diego since 2017, after her father, who worked for an American company, received a Special Immigrant Visa.
Witnessing the swift and brutal fall of her homeland to Taliban forces from afar, desperately worried about family members left behind in Kabul, one of whom has been forced to go into hiding, she completely changed the concept of her painting.
“After I started painting, I felt like, ‘This girl is not happy at this time. Why should I paint her that way?’” she says. But having always tried to show Afghanistan in a positive light, she wanted to convey her wish for a brighter future.
“I got an idea that even if we are in dark days of our lives and our country ... we still have a ray of hope, so I used that coloured part of the painting as a ray of hope.”
The work drew tens of thousands of views. “I didn’t expect to go viral with this painting. It was really emotional for me … I cried a lot over that painting,” she says.
Born and raised in Kabul, where she attended high school and college, Rahmani studied civil engineering before moving to California aged 19. She says that since the withdrawal of US troops last month, her friends in the Afghan capital, several of them women who worked as civil engineers, are afraid to leave their homes.
“I had so many friends over there working. After this happened they are all unemployed. They are stuck at home and everyone is so scared,” she says. “Most of the stores and offices are closed right now, so how can they make money? After one month with no work, no food, nothing, how can you survive? It’s really hard for all Afghan people, especially for women.”
Despite her move to the US four years ago, Rahmani has not had an easy time. Initially struggling with English, she found herself forced to repeat her studies.
“Even if you know English, when you come here it’s totally different,” she says. “They didn’t accept the documents from there, my transcripts, so I started over again here with college in civil engineering and it’s my second year. The first year I was not really happy but I had to go on and achieve my goals, my dreams.”
Rahmani started painting at the age of 15, attending two months of art classes in Kabul before academic demands forced her to quit. Having always regarded painting as a hobby, she continued to create new artworks in America, taking inspiration from photographs to portray Afghan culture in a positive light.
“We have so many talented photographers in Afghanistan,” she says. “There is Fatimah Hossaini, Roya Heydari and so many other photographers who are so talented and well-known. I get my ideas from them.
"They were my role models and I was inspired by their work when I started, especially Avizeh, who does clothes design, Afghan jewellery and very good photography of Afghan girls and women.”
Rahmani’s paintings aim to show a different side of Afghanistan. “My goal was to show the beautiful face of my country – our culture, our traditions – because we have a rich culture," she says.
"When you search on Google for Afghanistan it’s all about war, blood, all these things – the poor people. We have so many good pictures of our country – beautiful places, beautiful people, kind people. I want to show that face of my country, not the war."
But now she feels compelled to change her approach.
“At this time I believe we have to,” she says. “It’s our responsibility to show what’s going on right now in our country and I will try my best … to raise awareness about this situation to the world … Still I keep the beauty in my paintings and I never want to hide that face.”
Although she never intended to pursue painting as a career, Rahmani says she has been inspired to reconsider.
"I never wanted to do painting as a job, but I realised that I have to do something with my art. People encouraged me a lot."
Navdeep Suri, India's Ambassador to the UAE
There has been a longstanding need from the Indian community to have a religious premises where they can practise their beliefs. Currently there is a very, very small temple in Bur Dubai and the community has outgrown this. So this will be a major temple and open to all denominations and a place should reflect India’s diversity.
It fits so well into the UAE’s own commitment to tolerance and pluralism and coming in the year of tolerance gives it that extra dimension.
What we will see on April 20 is the foundation ceremony and we expect a pretty broad cross section of the Indian community to be present, both from the UAE and abroad. The Hindu group that is building the temple will have their holiest leader attending – and we expect very senior representation from the leadership of the UAE.
When the designs were taken to the leadership, there were two clear options. There was a New Jersey model with a rectangular structure with the temple recessed inside so it was not too visible from the outside and another was the Neasden temple in London with the spires in its classical shape. And they said: look we said we wanted a temple so it should look like a temple. So this should be a classical style temple in all its glory.
It is beautifully located - 30 minutes outside of Abu Dhabi and barely 45 minutes to Dubai so it serves the needs of both communities.
This is going to be the big temple where I expect people to come from across the country at major festivals and occasions.
It is hugely important – it will take a couple of years to complete given the scale. It is going to be remarkable and will contribute something not just to the landscape in terms of visual architecture but also to the ethos. Here will be a real representation of UAE’s pluralism.
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre V8 twin-turbocharged and three electric motors
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Price: expected to start at Dh1,432,000
Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
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The%20specs
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What sanctions would be reimposed?
Under ‘snapback’, measures imposed on Iran by the UN Security Council in six resolutions would be restored, including:
- An arms embargo
- A ban on uranium enrichment and reprocessing
- A ban on launches and other activities with ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, as well as ballistic missile technology transfer and technical assistance
- A targeted global asset freeze and travel ban on Iranian individuals and entities
- Authorisation for countries to inspect Iran Air Cargo and Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines cargoes for banned goods
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
MATCH INFO
Karnataka Tuskers 110-5 (10 ovs)
Tharanga 48, Shafiq 34, Rampaul 2-16
Delhi Bulls 91-8 (10 ovs)
Mathews 31, Rimmington 3-28
Karnataka Tuskers win by 19 runs
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
AI traffic lights to ease congestion at seven points to Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Street
The seven points are:
Shakhbout bin Sultan Street
Dhafeer Street
Hadbat Al Ghubainah Street (outbound)
Salama bint Butti Street
Al Dhafra Street
Rabdan Street
Umm Yifina Street exit (inbound)
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
THE 12 BREAKAWAY CLUBS
England
Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur
Italy
AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus
Spain
Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Real Madrid
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Federer's 19 grand slam titles
Australian Open (5 titles) - 2004 bt Marat Safin; 2006 bt Marcos Baghdatis; 2007 bt Fernando Gonzalez; 2010 bt Andy Murray; 2017 bt Rafael Nadal
French Open (1 title) - 2009 bt Robin Soderling
Wimbledon (8 titles) - 2003 bt Mark Philippoussis; 2004 bt Andy Roddick; 2005 bt Andy Roddick; 2006 bt Rafael Nadal; 2007 bt Rafael Nadal; 2009 bt Andy Roddick; 2012 bt Andy Murray; 2017 bt Marin Cilic
US Open (5 titles) - 2004 bt Lleyton Hewitt; 2005 bt Andre Agassi; 2006 bt Andy Roddick; 2007 bt Novak Djokovic; 2008 bt Andy Murray
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
