An Afghan man works at a traditional yarn factory in Heart province, Afghanistan July 28, 2015. (Photo by Mohammad Shoib/Reuters)

A man rides a horse at a playground on a hill in Kabul April 19, 2015. (Photo by Mohammad Ismail/Reuters)

A Taliban fighter stands guard as a woman walks past in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, December 26, 2022. Recent Taliban rulings on Afghan women include bans on university education and working for NGOs, sparking protests in major cities. Security in the capital Kabul has intensified in recent days, with more checkpoints, armed vehicles, and Taliban special forces on the streets. Authorities have not given a reason for the tougher security. (Photo by Ebrahim Noroozi/AP Photo)

Afghan boys stand on a snow-covered street on the TV mountain in Kabul, Afghanistan on January 25, 2023. (Photo by Ali Khara/Reuters)

Afghan children buy breads from a bakery in Fayzabad of Badakhshan province on February 7, 2024. (Photo by Omer Abrar/AFP Photo)

An Afghan man cleans the his courtyard partially submerged in flood water following the flash floods after heavy rainfall in Guzara district of Herat province on March 13, 2024. (Photo by Mohsen Karimi/AFP Photo)

Afghanistan, published by Taschen later July, is a retrospective portfolio of the Magnum photographer Steve McCurry’s most striking images of the country, from 1979 to 2016. Here: Kunar province, 1980. Armed mujahideen carry animal skins to use as inflatable buoys to cross rapids. (Photo by Steve McCurry/Taschen/Magnum Photos/The Guardian)

In this photograph taken on October 27, 2017 an Afghan woman collects saffron flowers after picking them in a field on the outskirt of Herat For years, Afghanistan has tried to give farmers alternatives such as fruit crops and saffron to wean them away from poppy farming – the lifeblood of the Taliban insurgency. International donors have splurged billions of dollars on counter- narcotics efforts in Afghanistan over the past decade, including efforts to encourage farmers to switch to other cash crops such as saffron. But those efforts have shown little results. (Photo by Hoshang Hashimi/AFP Photo)