After the Taliban took over Afghanistan, many of the country's citizens are uncertain of how it will affect their lives and safety.
But to an outsider like me, it can be difficult to make sense of it and fully understand what these people are going through. So I have to turn to someone who can explain.
Shamsia Hassani, a painter who has taught at Kabul University, is considered Afghanistan's first female street artist. Whether she's working on a canvas or the wall of an abandoned bombed building, Hassani's works not only portray the role of women in a male-dominated society but also provide a glimpse into the battle between light and darkness that has enslaved the place she calls home.
More info: shamsiahassani.net | Instagram
Meet Shamsia Hassani, a painter who has taught at Kabul University and is considered Afghanistan's first female street artist
She got into it in 2010 after going to a graffiti workshop led by UK artist CHU
Since then, Hassani has developed a unique style and painted her trademark character -- a woman with her eyes shut and no mouth -- all over the country
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Shamsia Hassani was born to Afghan parents in Iran in 1988. She has had to endure hardships from the very start of her life. “Since Iran has no law through which you can be an Iranian national, I stayed Afghan after birth," the artist told Bored Panda. “I still remember that Afghans were not allowed to work in Iran just because of their nationality. Afghans were told that they don’t have the government’s permission to find a job, so my parents were facing a lot of difficulties. But I was young and didn’t understand."
Eventually, her life took Shamsia back to Afghanistan. There, in 2010, she attended a graffiti workshop that was held in Kabul by Combat Communications and it has taken her on a path she still follows a decade later. “I attended the workshop with 9 colleagues from Berang. Combat Communications invited CHU, a graffiti artist from the UK to lead the event.”
“CHU’s lectures included theory, practical work, and presentations of different artists from around the world,” Shamsia added. “There, we learned graffiti for the first time. As the workshop continued, we learned about spray techniques and how to paint large scale drawings on the wall.”
After the workshop, the other 9 artists that attended it with Shamsia did not continue working on their graffiti skills or follow the art form at all. She, however, was hooked. “I really liked it and thought it has a lot of uses. I believed that graffiti can be a tool through which I will change the war-torn walls of my city into colorful paintings,” Shamsia explained. “The colors would hide stories of war on the walls of my city and people would see new things instead of bullet signs and cracks.”
“I also believed it could be a way for people to experience my art, people who have never been to an exhibition and have never seen my works. They could get a chance to discover and enjoy something new. Maybe some would even take pictures in front of it and have a few minutes of entertainment.”
Im from Croatia, im 40 and live alone with my daughter (13). We have a room in our apartment for another person. If there is a woman seeking home away from Afghanistan i would like to help.
But when Shamsia got into graffiti, her country became more dangerous and she couldn’t go outside to spray happiness. There were also some other cultural nuances that she had to face. “People in Afghanistan are not against art, but they’re against women’s activities,” she said. “So when someone saw me outside doing graffiti, they said bad words, they cursed, and some called it a sin.“
“When I painted in public spaces, I would start feeling unsafe after about 15 minutes, so I would leave the place. If I had the opportunity to stay for about 2-3 hours, my pieces would have been better but in 15 minutes all I could do was either paint something very simple or leave the piece unfinished.”
“The other issue was that there was a lack of places for graffiti. No one wanted a painting on their walls, they only agreed if I created something to their liking. They had their own requests when it came to their property and didn’t want my artworks.”
Shamsia said that after the fall of the Taliban in 2001, despite the ongoing war and various political and social issues, the situation for women actually improved – they gradually entered society and were provided with the opportunity to study and grow. “During these twenty years, many women developed in various fields like education, trade, culture, medicine, etc. The progress was slow but very promising.”
But unfortunately, things have just taken a turn for the worse. “Now, with the return of the Taliban (I still don’t believe it at all when I say this), many women are leaving the country and ... do not see a bright future. The result of all these years of effort was for nothing.”
Luckily, Hassani is safe but to her disappointment and sadness, she has had to leave her country.
“Many of my paintings have a recurring character. Just like movie characters have their roles to play, so does mine. Most importantly, she’s a human being, but because I am a woman and I understand women better because women have more restrictions than men in our society, I chose my character to be a woman. A woman with shut eyes and no mouth, sometimes with a damaged musical instrument which gives her power and confidence to talk and play. Her shut eyes represent that there is nothing good to see. She chooses to ignore everything so she could feel less sorrow,” the artist added, saying that her work is primarily focused on individuals and social issues, but at times they get political too.
“The character in my paintings sometimes plays different roles such as a combatant or a refugee with no future. At times, she searches for peace, and sometimes she has no identity whatsoever. She also gets lost in her dreams as well as the pain and sorrow, she struggles with the past and the future but is a patriot who loves her homeland and fights hopelessness.”
if all weapons were paper, we'd have to write, which means we'd have to think
This is my favorite. We must love and nurture our Earth and hear the cries of her peoples. Our world rests in our hands.
if you think about it it's more than sad, woman's can't listen to music and they won't be able to do things they used to like work on a fabric or drive a bike in the news people trow rocks on lady bc she was driving a bike,the man's want woman's to stay at home just cooking or just bc they think woman's don't have the direct to do things that man's do! The president is gone bc he wants , maybe he wants to see and start the end of the world? Let's all pray for these people pls, and hope that everything will be alright!
Note: this post originally had 89 images. It’s been shortened to the top 40 images based on user votes.
Sadly we won't see much more of this artist now that the Taliban have "liberated" Afghanistan. Or should I say now that the Afghan government handed over the country to some ruthless religious psychopaths who want to live in the dark middle ages? The Taliban are basically murdering misogynists playing a LARP intending to oppress women with a vengeance.
It is heartbreaking how religion causes so much pain and misery.
It's not the religion that causes pain and misery. It is the people in power.
Yes. Religion is a scapegoat. It's basically a tool, people can use it for good or bad. But by its nature it requires unquestioning faith which makes it susceptible to abuse
It has and always will be abused by people, we just should get rid of it. It's also a bunch of lies and meant to control your thoughts, even if they are moderate or light believers but 97% of the followers of any religion gets indoctrinated (and sometimes genitally mutilated) from birth. People are also though that they are not strong enough for life and need the help of a deity or religion, this is a scam and downplaying people. It is not a scapegoat, it is a tool for manipulation and domination, always... Just look at all the pro-life nutters in the US, they are supposed to be moderate Christians but basically hate everyone and everything they don't agree with.
Very true. Christians in the 11th and 12th centuries used Christianity as an excuse for the crusades.
Who put those "people" in power, Peach? Those gullible folks who believe that they can do devil's work and for that will be reworded by good god.
Well said PeachPossum👍
How is Christianity different from any other religion????????????????
You are talking like the afghan government was anything more than a money launderer for american weapon manufacturers.
While I do agree with you, I just want to add that 60,000 afghan troops did die defending Afghanistan from the Taliban. It's not that no one fought, just saying
@Mohammad: l don’t know why your comment has so many downvotes. You are right. The changes or the will to change has to come from within the Afghan society. You can’t force democracy and all the transformations that WE as the west like to see on the Afghan people. We actually don’t know how many men/women welcomed the Taliban and their Stone Age-like interpretation of Islam. Surveys done during the last years suggested that a high number of people actually prefer the Sharia. So let’s hope that the strong Afghan women won’t forget the times when they had the rights that every human being should have and that they will fight for it. Afghan people are strong and resilient.
Plus, we only look at Kabul. The government was only present and active in the capital. In the surrounding areas and especially in the rural regions of Afghanistan the Taliban have been in power for the last years, since they filled the void that the government left. Most(!) of them behaved quite reasonably by building wells and so forth. So they gained the trust of the people gradually. Remember, that the majority of the rural population aren’t that progressive as we think or want to believe. The Afghan government and the West failed miserably. Let’s face that.
I recently heard that the Taliban were going door to door and taking 12 year old girls as sex slaves. What a world we live in...
Yeah someone needs to yeet these ruthless, stupid, unforgiving, annoying turds into space
People like her will always exist in Afghanistan. The same way there will always be an extremist or conservative in the liberal west. Afghanistan will recover, maybe not in the next few years but it will, and when it does it will be through the might of the Afghan people themselves. They will go through their enlightenment and it will be beautiful to witness.
If people, especially women, are deprived of non-religious education, how will those primitive people in the rural regions recover?
Her work is beautiful and heartbreaking.
Hard to look at
She's very talented and her images are interesting and - although sad, frightening and tragic - aesthetically pleasing. I'm noticing the recurring dandelion imagery. I have my own guesses and interpretations, but I'm curious whether the dandelion flower has s specific intended meaning.
They represent hope to some so that may be it. It’s really an interesting choice for many reasons. It can represent hope but many in America treat it as a trash weed and try to eliminate them despite how wonderful they are for the bees.
In America, people prefer tons of chemicals to dandelions and other wild flowers.
In the UK we call the dandelion in this stage Dandelion Clocks and blow on them. The number of puffs necessary is the time. You have to blow on them VERY hard if you know it's 1pm and not so much at noon!! If you blow to make a wish then some seeds remaining reflects good luck and it means different things at different stages. Yellow petals, the sun. Seeds, the moon. Blowing in wind the stars. It also is said to have perfect proportions and the symmetry equals something but I can't remember that one!
In America, we blow on dandelions and make a wish. Maybe there’s a correlation to that.
Thank you, everyone, for the answers. It all makes sense. Also had similar interpretations myself, with the addition of the fact that the seeds, once spread, create new flowers. That can be both a good thing (like, let's spread seeds of love and peace), but also a bad thing (seeds of violence can spread too). It can also be the spreading of a message, which this art is actually doing. And then, there is the delicate nature of a flower, yet also the incredible resistance of the dandelion as a particular species that are able to grow even on concrete. All in all, essentially it all sums up to hope, and wishes, indeed.
Also, the fragility.
Me, too
Sadly we won't see much more of this artist now that the Taliban have "liberated" Afghanistan. Or should I say now that the Afghan government handed over the country to some ruthless religious psychopaths who want to live in the dark middle ages? The Taliban are basically murdering misogynists playing a LARP intending to oppress women with a vengeance.
It is heartbreaking how religion causes so much pain and misery.
It's not the religion that causes pain and misery. It is the people in power.
Yes. Religion is a scapegoat. It's basically a tool, people can use it for good or bad. But by its nature it requires unquestioning faith which makes it susceptible to abuse
It has and always will be abused by people, we just should get rid of it. It's also a bunch of lies and meant to control your thoughts, even if they are moderate or light believers but 97% of the followers of any religion gets indoctrinated (and sometimes genitally mutilated) from birth. People are also though that they are not strong enough for life and need the help of a deity or religion, this is a scam and downplaying people. It is not a scapegoat, it is a tool for manipulation and domination, always... Just look at all the pro-life nutters in the US, they are supposed to be moderate Christians but basically hate everyone and everything they don't agree with.
Very true. Christians in the 11th and 12th centuries used Christianity as an excuse for the crusades.
Who put those "people" in power, Peach? Those gullible folks who believe that they can do devil's work and for that will be reworded by good god.
Well said PeachPossum👍
How is Christianity different from any other religion????????????????
You are talking like the afghan government was anything more than a money launderer for american weapon manufacturers.