in order to create a more peaceful, just and prosperous future for all seems ever more distant for the victims of Afghanistan. The AHRDO Memory Box initiative in Afghanistan-A Creative Journey into the Past in the Quest for a better Future Thus far, a culture of impunity incessantly perpetuated by those too powerful to have their might threatened by a group of illiterate men and women living amongst the rubbles of war, has prevented any attempt to officially and systematically recognize the suffering of millions of ordinary Afghan citizens. No judicial persecution of any of the readily identifiable perpetrators of mass atrocities has ever taken place. No reparations have been paid to those who have endured decades of misery and deprivation. Only a few memorials remembering the innocent dead have been built, most of them by virtue of individual initiatives and in fact, against the will of those with blood on their hands. To add insult to injury, those courageous activists who have dared to work towards some form of justice in the country have largely met with condescending silence, hollow excuses and, on various occasions, violence, including torture and murder. As a result, and in spite of more than 11 years of internationallybacked human rights activities in the country, the notion of addressing the past The History of Memory Boxes in Afghanistan In early 2011, after several years of applying various participatory theatre techniques such as Theatre of the Oppressed and Playback Theatre to work with Afghanistan's victims of war, the AHRDO team decided to search for additional, people's-led ways of using the arts to promote an engagement with the country's violent past and present. One well-known method that had not yet been explored was the so-called Aesthetics of the Oppressed. According to its founder Augusto Boal, the method seeks to develop in those that practice it a capacity for perceiving the world by means of all the arts, centering around three human faculties: the Word, the Sound and the Image. In doing that, an important distinction is drawn between the aesthetic process and the aesthetic product, with the former being indispensable for the latter to exist. At the same time, the process itself may be inconclusive without necessarily losing any of its validity with regards to empowering people to rediscover and exercise their inherently present but socially denied capacity to create. Hence, engaging with the Aesthetics of the Oppressed, participants are invited to create their own words, make their own sounds and produce their own images in the form of poems, declarations of identity, photos, drawings, songs, etc. Determined to use this method, but still unsure about the concrete outcomes of the aesthetic process itself, the AHRDO team searched for further means and eventually came across “Making Memories Matter”, a unique initiative conducted in Europe in 2005. To mark the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II, the European Reminiscence Network led by Pam Schweitzer created The Memory Box Initiative: Seeking to Break the Cycle of Violence and Tragedy in Afghanistan The Memory Box Initiative: Seeking to Break the Cycle of Violence and Tragedy in Afghanistan 1 Background The AHRDO Memory Box initiative arose out of the need to provide a space for the victims of Afghanistan to finally tell their stories of loss and resilience in the face of the country's violent history of mass murder, genocide, palace revolutions and unrelenting political upheaval. It is an attempt to actively propel these victims from their current position on the margins of society into the centre of the ongoing peace and reconciliation process, with the final aim of making important, grassroots contributions to breaking the seemingly endless cycle of violence and tragedy. At the same time, after more than four years of close, generally arts-based collaborations between AHRDO and various victims’ and widows’ associations in different parts of the country, it is as clear as crystal that those who have lost their beloved will not desist from standing their ground until their demands for recognition, truth-telling and justice have been met. Hence the AHRDO Memory Box initiative with war widows constitutes another novel and innovative effort to promote the voices of those who must not be forgotten when it comes to peace and justice in Afghanistan. 2