When I first arrived in Afghanistan in 2003, I had some tenacious preconceived ideas about Afghan women: the traditional victims, submissive and silent sufferers. But, in 2007, I found myself in a smokey police station in Kandahar, the Taliban birthplace, surrounded by hilarious female police officers. Their chief, Captain Malalaï Kakar, a super strong woman with piercing eyes, was smoking one cigarette after another, an AK-47 stuck between her legs. I had the honor to spend some days at her home with her four children and with her team at work before she was murdered by the Taliban a year later. She opened my eyes, revealing the truth. Women are not passive, submissive victims. They fight like no other. They have strength and power. Across my 20-year career, I met some amazing ones who can only raise admiration. It's time to get rid of our obsolete representations of women. It is time to look at them in the eyes. They are amazing.