Yohanna, 22, lies next to her mother after having a kidney removed following being shot in her abdomen at the border in Shambuko, Eritrea. The Eritrean police wanted to send her mother home after two years of detention due to her unstable health condition. Yohanna’s mother had been imprisoned for not providing information about her husband’s whereabouts, even if she had lost all contacts with him, once he had fled to Jerusalem in 2015. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. October 31, 2017.
Photograph(s) by Cinzia Canneri/ZEKE Magazine

Written by Nicole Miller

Copy Edited by Kee’nan Haggen

Photo Edited by Olivia Castillo

The power of documentary photography as an instrument of social change is on full display in Cinzia Canneri’s direct, confrontational depiction of the trauma of sexual violence against women in the Horn of Africa from 2017-2019. Winner of ZEKE Magazine’s First-Place award in documentary photography, Women’s Bodies as Battlefield, Canneri examines the physical and psychological damage endured by Eritrean and Tigrinya women migrating from the totalitarian dictatorship of Eritrea and seeking refuge in Ethiopia and Sudan. Hauntingly truthful and emotionally compelling, Canneri’s work exposes her audience to the horrific, unjust treatment of Eritrean and Tigrinya women, challenging geographically distant viewers to address the notion of women’s bodies as battlefields within the international arena.

Regat, 37, grew up in Eritrea and escaped to Ethiopia in 2010. She says “I left Eritrea partly to help my family with their deep economic troubles, but I can't see a future ahead.” She currently works at a café because she needs money to try to reach Sudan, but she only earns 600 birr – 12 dollars – per month. Axum, Ethiopia. April 4, 2019.
Photograph(s) by Cinzia Canneri/ZEKE Magazine

Canneri employs monochrome photographs to compel the audience’s focus on her subject matter. In this portrait, Canneri’s close-up of her subject, Regat, 37, occupies most of the composition, ensuring our curiosity is centered on her rather than the background. She stares intently into the lens, demanding our attention. Regat migrated from Eritrea to Ethiopia to help her family with their financial difficulties. However, she is unhopeful for the future as she makes 600 birr a month, the equivalent of 12 dollars, working at a cafe. The strong contrast of the black and white shot emphasizes the dramatic impact of Regat’s desperate situation as the camera lingers on her emotionally wounded yet resolute expression.

Yemane, 23, shows a scar caused by soldiers during a shooting in Tigray. Yemane escaped from Eritrea and lived in the Mai Aini camp when the war broke out. She was there with her husband, two children, and her sister. During the escape she was raped in front of her children and her husband was captured and taken away.
At the border, while soldiers were shooting at her husband, her sister was wounded and Yemane managed to run with her children. She still doesn’t know whether her sister is alive or dead. Yemane suffers from anxiety disorders linked to post-traumatic stress, and she feels responsible for not aiding her sister.
The UNHCR declared that 24,000 Eritrean refugees in the Mai Aini and Adi Harush camps, located in the Mai Tsebri area in Tigray, have lived in a state of constant terror and could not access humanitarian aid of any kind.
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. November 30, 2022.
Photograph(s) by Cinzia Canneri/ZEKE Magazine

ZEKE Magazine notes the harrowing war crimes committed against Eritrean refugees in Tigray, specifically against the woman in the photograph above, Yemane, 23. In a vulnerable pose, Yemane lifts her dress to reveal a scar inflicted by soldiers in a shooting in Tigray. Canneri forces viewers to absorb the lasting effects of Yemane’s physical injury, offering a starkly sharp image of just one of the atrocities Yemane has suffered. Perhaps uncomfortable and at least compassionate, the audience is prompted to wonder about Yemane’s circumstances. If curious, they learn that during her escape from Eritrea, she was raped before her children, her husband was captured, and her sister was lost and wounded. These events' toll on Yemane’s mental state is ineffable, triggering anxiety disorders and post-traumatic stress. Canneri does not display Yemane’s face, allowing her to represent several women, highlighting that Yemane is just one of many who has survived the war with both visible and invisible scars.

An Eritrean girl walking along the railway that connects Eritrea with Ethiopia. The majority of children in Eritrea grow up without the protection of parents, who have emigrated or are serving in the military indefinitely in unknown locations. This causes children to develop a strong desire to escape to a new life and to leave their country at a young age.
As a result of the peace agreement between Eritrea and Ethiopia signed in September 2018, the average daily arrivals to Europe in the three months following the reopening of borders revealed that many children have actually run away without their family knowing it, often in the attempt to reach their parents already abroad.
Foundation Human Rights for Eritreans (FHRE) has denounced the international community for providing aid to Eritrea, which even after the peace agreement with Ethiopia still maintains a dictatorial regime considered the worst after North Korea. This causes Eritrean people, including many unaccompanied minors, to leave.
Asmara-Massawa road, Eritrea. March 23, 2019.
Photograph(s) by Cinzia Canneri/ZEKE Magazine

Unlike the other two photographs, we see here that Canneri implements a long shot to introduce her audience to a young Eritrean girl walking along the railroad that connects Eritrea to Ethiopia. ZEKE Magazine explains that many Eritrean children grow up without present parents, causing them to leave Eritrea in search of a new life. The viewer's eyes are drawn to the small girl in the center of the photograph. Canneri captures the mountain range surrounding the girl, artistically conveying how the vast desolate land engulfs her. The future's unknown lies before her as she bravely moves forward, exposed, alone, and isolated.

Women’s Bodies as Battlefield urges viewers to react. Canneri not only educates her audience on the exceptionally despondent circumstances Eritrean and Tigrinya women confront, but she also highlights the universal oppression of women worldwide. The images of internal struggle as a consequence of external conflict effectively create a restless outrage for the injustice aimed at women and their bodies. It is ethically imperative we do not neglect suffering on a global scale, and we must remember these are only a few of the countless women affected.

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