In Afghanistan, countless women are imprisoned for what are referred to as “moral crimes,” a vague term used to apply to cases in which they have fled from abusive and forced marriages or domestic slavery, and to accusations of premarital sex, very often applied to survivors of forced prostitution and rape. While those who do violence to these women usually walk free, their victims are deposited in one of the country’s prisons, sometimes pregnant with little hope of a future for themselves and their children. Polish-Canadian photographer Gabriela Maj spent four years visiting women in their cells, where they live alongside five to ten fellow prisoners. Here, she sat with them, listened to their stories, and when she was permitted, took their portraits, collected in her new book Almond Garden, titled after the infamous women’s prison Badam Bagh.