SJSU to honor Afghan photojournalist
Massoud Hossaini will receive Hearst Award for visually chronicling fall of Kabul to Taliban
This past summer, as thousands were fleeing Afghanistan during the Taliban takeover of Kabul, photojournalist Massoud Hossaini stayed put.
Working with Foreign Policy magazine, he documented the chaotic ending of the 20-year-conflict and what life was going to be like under the Taliban. In one article, he captured photos of Afghan women who feared being sold into sex slavery or forced into marriage. In another, he snapped a dramatic shot of a female Afghan politician looking down the sight of a gun.
It’s a body of work that the San Jose State University School of Journalism and Mass Communications will honor by awarding Hossaini the 2021 William Randolph Hearst Award, given since 1995 to those who have made contributions to the free press. Past recipients include Dr. Anthony Fauci, CNN’s Jim Acosta, news anchor Dan
Rather and local filmmaker Alexander Shebanow.
“He has an ability to draw beauty even in times of despair,” said Halima KazemStojanovic, a San Jose State journalism and human rights lecturer. “The ups and downs of having to photograph war makes his work unique.”
The virtual award ceremony will be held from noon to 1:30 p.m. today. Hossaini will present some of his photographs and answer questions from the online audience, and San Jose State President Mary Papazian will also be making remarks.
In an emailed statement, Hossaini said he was planning on using the award to “raise” his generation’s voice — “the generation who tried hard to work for and promote freedom and democracy.”
“However, allies and the free world betrayed us and I (lost) everything,” he wrote. “I also (dedicate) this award to all those heartbroken female journalists who hide themselves and have the hardest time in their lives now, and my hands are empty to help them!”
Born in Kabul, Hossaini and his family left the country in the early 1980s for Iran after the invasion by the Soviet Union. While in Iran, Hossaini picked up photography as a hobby and started snapping shots of Afghan refugees.
Following the Sept. 11 attacks and the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, Hossaini returned to the country to document the ongoing conflict, ultimately winning the Pulitzer Prize in Breaking News Photography while on assignment with Agence FrancePresse. The photo features a screaming 12-year-old girl surrounded by victims of a suicide bomber attack in 2012.
It’s work that has also come at a cost: Hossaini has been injured 11 times while reporting in Afghanistan.
He currently resides in the Netherlands.
San Jose State’s journalism and communications department was founded by Dwight Bentel in 1936. Graduates of the program have gone on to win six Pulitzer Prizes.
To register for the free event, go to http://go.sjsu.edu/hearst2021.