These Afghan girls paint stories of courage, hope

NEW DELHI: Here each stroke is a poignant tale, each colour is an ocean of emotions and each piece of art is a promise to fight for the artist's rights.
In a first of its kind exhibition at Indira Gandhi Centre for Art, 18 young Afghan women students, aged between 16 and 25, showcased their artworks that are not just testimony to the centuries of oppression and deprivation that these young women have managed to conquer but is a moving depiction of the social and psychological pressures that are the defining elements of the lives of most Afghan women.The exhibition will be open from September 9 to September 14 in the city before travelling to Kolkata and thereafter US, Italy, Germany and Spain.
"It is not just a painting, but a voice, which is suppressed, unheard. Each painting has a tale, an experience or a dream behind it. We are young girls, so we paint what we see, hear and experience. I have always seen double standards in my society, so I have tried portraying that through a painting titled ���Double standard'. My work expresses my deep feelings towards grievances of Afghan women and the helplessness experienced by my people," said 21-year old Nabila Horakhsh.
Despite the pain, domination, political impositions and the conflicting demands of various regimes, it is not just sufferings that these artists seek to portray. Their paintings narrate the stories of unmatched courage and hopes that survive amidst emotional ruins. "My paintings always have a lampshade. I intended to show my dreams in the lampshade because lampshades are nice and unsustainable like dreams. I feel life is also similar to this. My paintings have a voice struggle and desire for change," said another artist Yalda Noori.
She added, "One of my favourite paintings is the one entitled ���For Liberty'. My inspiration for this painting came at the time of war. When I have heard an old lady staying in my neighbourhood is crying in pain as her son is not well but she couldn't take him out to a doctor, due to the war. My paintings reflect issues about the lives of Afghan women and I vary the use of colours with the theme of the painting."
Confined within their homes because of the war and then the diktats of the Taliban regime, the women took to painting largely because it was an indoor exercise. It was along the way that they discovered its powers as a medium of expression. One painting shows a crowd of faceless women but each with her own identity - one a mother, the other sister, yet another one a wife.
Rahraw Omarzad, director of Centre for Contemporary Arts Afghanistan, said, "These girls are young, but their art reflects the maturity of their thoughts. Most of them practise it as a hobby. A place where art and freedom are alien to the society, these young girls are trying to transform the society through the colours, brushes and canvas. These girls don't have any training in art but that cannot hinder them from expressing themselves with freedom."