Heads turned and eyes peered from beneath the dense fabric of burkas as Rebecca Sell made her way through Afghanistan with female Marines at her side and her camera in hand.
“Walking around in that area as a woman is like being a pink elephant walking in the middle of town,” Sell said.
Two years ago, Sell, an assistant professor in Ohio University’s School of Visual Communication, traveled to Musa Qala, Afghanistan, on a freelance assignment sponsored by the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va.
“It doesn’t happen very often that a professor goes into combat as a reporter,” said Terry Eiler, director of OU’s School of Visual Communication. “It brings freshness into the classroom.”
Sell became interested in covering interactions between female military members and Afghan women after a conversation with her brother-in-law about what people do not understand concerning the military. That spurred her research about females’ role in the military.
Although Sell said her alert was heightened in Afghanistan, she usually felt safe while in the company of the military. She added that she was surprised at how friendly the Afghan women were and felt welcomed by them.
Sell said she was cognizant of the dangers that reporters or photographers could face in a war zone, an idea that hit home about a year ago when OU alumnus Chris Hondros was killed while on assignment in Libya. Hondros had given Sell advice about being embedded with the military before her departure.
“The best piece of advice I got was you can’t pack enough patience,” Sell said.
OU students preparing for similar careers said telling such stories is vital.
“It’s important to show that females can do just as good a job over there, and (Sell) came out with something really important,” said Maddie McGarvey, president of OU’s chapter of the National Press Photographers Association.
Sell’s work took her to Musa Qala for three weeks, where she photographed the relations between U.S. Marine Female Engagement Teams and Afghan women.
Female Engagement Teams are a fairly new sector of the Marine Corps as a part of the counterinsurgency effort. The first female Marines to participate in the program were deployed in the spring of 2010.
Stemming from the Lioness Program in Iraq, which allowed female military members to search Iraqi women who might be smugglers or suicide bombers, the Female Engagement Teams.
give Afghani women an opportunity to speak to female troops about their concerns for the community and their children.
The Female Engagement Teams’ goal was to bridge the culture and information gap between the Afghan women and U.S. Marines. Male Marines are not allowed to interact with Afghan women.
“(Female troops) had access to a culture that men didn’t,” Sell said. “It would be taboo to even look at a woman.”
That’s where the Female Engagement Teams come in.
Sell’s photos, which tell the story of the service the engagement teams do in Musa Qala and their reception from the citizens, have been published in The Washington Post, The Marine Corps Times and on Time.com.
From shots of Female Engagement Teams entering the compounds of Afghan women to images of their interactions with children, Sell brought what was often referred to as “the third gender” to light and informed viewers about their mission in Afghanistan.
“(The engagement teams) are not treated as Afghan women or western men; that’s where the third-gender mindset came from,” Sell said. “It made sense that there was something different or unique about them in that area.”
hm156809@ohiou.edu
