“These days are very hard. I feel very close to death. Each day is like it was the last. They can kill me or remove me, my physical body, but they can never kill my spirit. They will not be able to remove or erase my thoughts. My thoughts will pass to the next generation with or without me. And I will never forgive them ». These are the words that Rada Akbar, a 33-year-old Afghan artist and photographer, entrusted an interview a few weeks before the Taliban took Kabul.
The words of the Afghan people that we have heard or read in these days are the most courageous and confirm the meaning of Rada Akbar’s message: they are a testimony, they remain in the shared heritage of the Afghan people and those who will come. What there has been in these 20 years, between the first Taliban government and their return, the freedom that has allowed us to direct our dreams to the future, to create works of art, to found a new female identity, not they passed in vain, even if they are experiencing the hardest moment today. Education, art, women’s freedom are all the more threatened by the return to power of the Taliban, women in Kabul live in hiding, waiting for the worst.
The voices and stories of those who have supported the cause of women in recent years remain an example for many. Like this Farzana Parween Wahidy, internationally famous, born in Kandahar in 1984 and adolescent when the Taliban took power: she attended school secretly hiding books under her burka. In 2004 she was the first Afghan photojournalist to work with an international agency and today she is fighting for women’s rights. “I take photos to express my feelings as a woman and through my photos raise the voice of Afghan women from a world dominated by men.”
Here we celebrate the courage and the voice of 5 Afghan photographers and artists whose works today have more value than ever.
1. Rada Akbar, 33, a photographer and visual artist, supports the role of women and education in Afghan society. Last year in Kabul, her “Abarzanan” exhibition dedicated to Afghan “Superwomen” celebrated the courage of 16 pioneers of women’s rights and empowerment in the country.
2. Farzana Parween Wahidy she studied secretly under the Taliban regime and became the first female photojournalist to work for an international agency. Her multiple award-winning shots portray the life and courage of Afghan women.
3. Fatimah Hossaini, Afghan-Iranian photographer tells stories of identity and femininity in Afghanistan with beauty, sensuality and colors. He founded and supports Mastooraat, an association that promotes artistic expression. Here is one of the photographs from the «Pearl In The Oyster» series.
4. “Death to darkness” is the title of this illustration published a few days after the entry of the Taliban in Kabul on the profile of Shamsia Hassani, 33-year-old famous Afghan graffiti artist. With her work, with a strong emotional power, she founded a new feminine image, courageous and ambitious and inspired thousands of women. “Art changes people’s minds, people change the world,” he writes.
5. Hangama Amiri, born in Afghanistan, raised in Canada, artist and feminist with her work analyzes how social norms influence the lives of Afghan women. This is the theme of her “Spectators of a New Dawn” exhibition, held in Toronto last March: a series of daily portraits like this one, “Woman with Red Lipstick”.
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