Afghanistan Today

By Photo-essay text by Azadeh Moaveni

How does a country show off its fresh liberty? A frilly sock, a dance, justice twinned with mercy. It has been seven months since the Taliban, with its pitiless version of Islamic rule, fell from power under the pressure of U.S. bombs. Last week 1,575 Afghan delegates representing all regions, all ethnicities and both sexes met in Kabul in a loya jirga, or traditional council, and chose as their new President for the next two years Hamid Karzai, who has served as interim leader since the Taliban collapsed. His administration, so far, is noted less for what it has rebuilt after 23 years of war than for its endurance and for making ordinary Afghans feel less in peril. TIME sent photographers Alexandra Boulat, Christopher Morris, James Nachtwey and John Stanmeyer to Afghanistan to capture what has already changed and what challenges lie ahead.

To see more photographs, go to time.com