How do you create negativity and show that your country is backward? You arrest a photojournalist for taking pictures of your culture and then attempt to rationalize it.
Authorities in Uzbekistan charged Umida Ahkmedova in December for “insulting and slandering the Uzbek nation”. She published a series of photographs for gender and human rights related projects. The sentence carries a punishment of at least 6 months in prison or 2-3 years hard labor.
The BBC has some of the pictures up on their site here.
In my opinion, I’m glad people like her take photographs like that so I can see how other people live in other parts of the world. I see no shame and I don’t think any less of the Uzbek people after seeing these photos. But I do think less of their government now.
GophaSpeak 