Posted by
Michael on Friday, March 07, 2008 7:47:08 AM
It's nice to see articles like this whenever
they pop up. Only ten years ago, Afghanistan was dominated by a
barbaric regime that used stadiums to perform public executions and
destroyed all works of art that "worshipped false idols" (as was the
case with the destruction of the centuries old Buddhist statues in
2001), and now, women are able to show exhibitions of their art in high
school auditoriums:
Seven years ago, the Taliban would have torn these paintings to pieces.
The
93 works show the emotions and images of a war-torn country in which
women are still deeply oppressed: war and weaponry, violence,
entrapment, hopelessness - and hope.
But the Taliban would have been most offended by the gender of the artists: women.
Twenty-three
young artists displayed their work at a recent eight-day show in Kabul
attended by 3,000 people, according to event organizer Rahraw Omarzad.
The show, which ended Monday, now travels to the western city of Herat.
Under
the hard-line Taliban regime, women were forbidden to leave home
without a male relative as an escort, and girls were not allowed to go
to school. Figurative art was banned and even destroyed.
"I
couldn't paint during Taliban regime because I didn't have enough
material, and I wasn't allowed to go out and buy paint," said
22-year-old artist Maryam Formuli.
"I was young and couldn't go
to the art center to learn because as a girl, I wasn't allowed to go to
school," added artist Fareha Ghezal, 19.
Unfortunately, the article didn't have any photos of the art in question. If anyone has any, please provide a link.