Since the Taliban retook power in Afghanistan after a 20-year war against US and NATO forces, there has been widespread fear that the country will return to its draconian past. Under the Taliban from 1996 to 2001, strict laws were put in place that seriously undermined the role of women and girls in society, with girls being banned from educational settings. Culture was also undermined with music banned and most art removed from public sight.
One Afghan female street artist has decided to turn her fears and apprehensions about the Taliban takeover into amazing art that has now gone viral online.
Shamsia Hassani, who is Afghanistan's first female street artist, created the amazing but disturbing images to highlight the plight of artists and females to the wider world.
A post shared by Shamsia Hassani (@shamsiahassani)
Hassani was born as a refugee in Iran in 1998 while Afghanistan was under Taliban rule and only returned to the country 4 years after the NATO invasion. She completed a degree in visual arts at the University of Kabul and later became a fine arts lecturer.
In a 2013 interview, she said:
"In the past, women were removed from society and they wanted women to stay only at home and wanted to forget about women. Now, I want to use my paintings to remind people about women. I have changed my images to show the strength of women, the joy of women. In my artwork, there is lots of movement. I want to show that women have returned to Afghan society with a new, stronger shape. It's not the woman who stays at home. It's a new woman. A woman who is full of energy, who wants to start again. You can see that in my artwork, I want to change the shape of women. I am painting them larger than life. I want to say that people look at them differently now."
Worryingly, Taliban leaders such as Zabihullah Mujahid have stated that women must learn their place in Taliban society and that some restrictions may be put in place. This contrasts with much of what the Taliban was saying prior to their takeover, that they would guarantee women's rights and be more liberal than before.
A post shared by Shamsia Hassani (@shamsiahassani)
A post shared by Shamsia Hassani (@shamsiahassani)
Hassani continues to work from her studio in Kabul and it is only hoped that she will remain free to live her life and produce work as she so wishes.
[h/t: My Modern Met]
COMMENTS