Amira Al-Sharif couldn’t hold back her tears as she read her sister’s message. “At 2:30 am I saw the world turn red because of the explosions. We almost go crazy, we went to the street with no clothes, it was all in rubble and we could not see anything. Then we drove with the lights turned off so that the planes would not see us and fire at us.” 

“Both my sisters lost their houses in the first air strike to Sanaa Airport and had to move to nearby villages, but all their neighbours died. My parents are still in Sanaa; they know it is not safe but they have no other option.” 

Stranded in Sweden (Yemen’s airports had been hit by airstrikes), Amira witnessed the destruction of the country she had thoroughly documented, now at a heartbreaking distance. According to UNOCHA, since the Saudi-led coalition began air strikes in Yemen last March 26th, 10,000 civilians have been killed, 40,000 were injured, and 300,000 were forced to flee their homes,

“The Saudi government has destroyed all the airports, so there is no aid reaching us and due to the lack of petrol and transportation, there is a dramatic food and water shortage, and traveling to seek refuge is nearly impossible. So everybody is stuck.” 

Al-Sharif began documenting the stories of her country’s women after returning in 2011 from a trip to the USA, where she studied for a year with ICP – flipping the narrative and becoming the first Eastern photographer to put a spotlight on the life of Western women. 

The uprising changed her plans. “Reporting on the revolution wasn’t something I wanted to do; I was returning to Yemen with new dreams, and when I arrived my country was falling apart. Taking war pictures wasn’t a choice, but it was the least I could do for my country – giving Yemeni victims a human face and a name.”