Local Photographer Speaks About Afghan Women

Local photographer and human rights activist, Connie Frisbee Houde, delivered a lecture last Thursday in the BTC Auditorium and Houde’s artwork was on display in the Marvin Library for several weeks.

“While in Afghanistan, I quickly fell in love with the people I met, the noble faces of the men, the strength of the women, and the poignant beauty of the children, whose eyes were windows to their souls. I am not simply looking at the Afghans through my lens. I am capturing them looking back at us,” Houde said.

To understand Houde, one must understand what she calls “the spirit and sacredness of people and their surroundings.” Having been to countries like Bosnia, Cambodia and many others, Houde has found her trips to Afghanistan to stand out the most.

She said she wants her art to help people distinguish between what the Afghan people are made out to be and what they truly are.

Houde wanted to make a difference and change how women’s rights are viewed in Afghanistan. As a result, she traveled to Afghanistan on four occasions, in order to reveal “the beauty of these people,” in her words.

Houde cited some factual information, such as Afghanistan being a country about the size of Texas and having roughly 32.5 million inhabitants. It is a place where it is “the small stuff that really, really makes a difference,” Houde said.

The people who struggle the most, and who received attention by Houde, are the people in the rural areas. Houde said that most foreign aid goes to the cities. This creates a gap between the two groups, which leads to the suffering of individuals who go unseen.

Culturally speaking, the United States and Afghanistan have many differences, but one similarity between the two is that there are individuals who wish to make a difference.

According to House, the difference she wishes to make is to enable women to realize they are not alone. She said, “There are young women and young men who want to better their country.”

Houde is a recipient of the New York State’s Arts Grant and is scheduled to receive Women against War’s grant in December for her artistic contributions.