Their name means "party of God" in Arabic. But in the West the name Hezbollah has become synonymous with terror, suicide bombings, and kidnappings.
Hezbollah, a radical militant Islamic group, was formed in the early 1980s in Lebanon under the backing of Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini.
It has since evolved into a movement—and a legitimate political party—with hundreds of trained guerrilla fighters and thousands of reserves.
Most recently Hezbollah fighters sparked international conflict when they kidnapped two Israeli soldiers and killed eight more during a July 12 raid.
The ongoing attacks between Israel and Lebanon since then have killed many civilians and created an environmental crisis.
National Geographic photographer Alexandra Avakian has captured images of conflict in the Middle East for nearly 20 years. She is the first Western photojournalist to gain access to Hezbollah in five years (see some of Avakian's photos of Hezbollah).
National Geographic News podcast host Patty Kim recently spoke with Avakian about her experience documenting the lives of Hezbollah members. The following edited transcript includes excerpts from the interview.
Click here to hear the full July 28, 2006, podcast.
I am sure there is no public relations wing where you can just make that polite phone call and arrange to get access, so it's really astonishing. How did you even get in?
I brought them the National Geographic [magazine] story I did on Iran in 1999. They loved that, because they have historic and military ties. They didn't say yes [at first], but little by little I managed. … They were [initially] very suspicious, but I've been working in the region for 18 years, in the Middle East, so I'm a known quantity.
[Avakian adds that Hezbollah's security division probably did a thorough background check and ultimately had the final say in what level of official access she would have.]
When you realized that you were finally going to get in, what was your reaction?
