Khadim Ali is a member of the Hazara community from the mountainous central region of Afghanistan, which suffered persecution under the first period of Taliban rule (1996–2001). These multilayered works directly reference the Taliban calling themselves ‘Rustam with wings’, controversially identifying with the celebrated, heroic figure of the Persian epic, the ‘Shāh-nāmeh’, analogous to Hercules in Greco-Roman legend. With his bow and arrow poised and ready for the kill, Ali has depicted an imposter Rustam as a wizened demon creature, with a horn-like head, fiery eyebrows and feathered wings. According to the ‘Shāh-nāmeh’, when Rustam once failed to defeat a black demon, an angel brought down a divine arrow and told him to aim for its eye. In Ali’s works, the angel is depicted with arrows, but also helps to carry a red rope threaded with jewel-like gems — a memorial to those who died by hanging under the Taliban.