Abdul Aziz Holding a Photograph of His Brother Mula Abdul Hakim is one of a few photographs included in the exhibition Homelands and Histories: Photographs by Fazal Sheikh that is not a direct portrait of a sitter. Instead, the photograph shows the hand of a man, Abdul Aziz, delicately holding a small, ID photo of his brother, Mula Abdul Hakim, a member of the mujahideen who was killed by pro-communist forces during the Soviet-Afghan war.
One of several Cold War era conflicts, the Soviet-Afghan War was fought from 1979 to 1989 between the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, backed by the Soviet army, and groups of anti-communist guerrilla forces collectively known as the mujahideen who denounced the growing influence of Soviet communism in Afghanistan. The Mujahideen fought to maintain the integrity of Islam in the Pro-Soviet regime. They viewed secular communism as a threat that encroached on the religious values of Islam and attempted to stifle the faith. Members of the mujahideen were revered as valiant martyrs by the country’s anti-communist population who fought for the worthy cause of religious resistance.
The blurred, out-of-focus background calls attention to the portrait held between Aziz’s fingers. As a photographic object, the ID photo serves as a final intimate contact Abdul Aziz has with his beloved brother and conveys a sense of the immeasurable loss in Aziz’s life.
The photograph is included in Sheikh’s second publication The Victor Weeps (1998), a body of work produced over a two-year period from 1996 to 1998 that documents the lives of Afghan refugees living in Pakistan who were displaced due to conflicts that arose from the Soviet Invasion as well as Sheikh’s own exploration of his ancestry through the lineage of his grandfather, who was born in northern India (now Pakistan).
The publication marked the first time Sheikh included personal testimonies of his subjects alongside his photographs. In the testimony that accompanies this image, Aziz envisions his brother in a quiet paradise: “In my dreams, he sits beside a pool in a garden silently washing.” Here, Aziz imagines a world fit for his brother that is a respite from the military conflicts that plagued Afghanistan for a decade.
With Abdul Aziz Holding a Photograph of His Brother Mula Abdul Hakim, Sheikh engages the capacity of even the most ordinary of photographs to commemorate the lives of those who once lived. The photograph is a tangible, albeit fragile trace of Abdul Hakim’s existence. Abdul Hakim’s photo takes on a significant commemorative function that enables Abdul Aziz to remember and honor his brother. In Aziz’s hands, Abdul Hakim’s humble portrait is a poignant, pocket-size monument to his life and an unfailing reminder of his sacrifice.
