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Mohammad Ismail / Reuters
A graffiti piece by Shamsia Hassani and Qasem Foushanji on a wall in Kabul, March 5, 2012.
Reuters reports from Kabul — Encased in a head-to-toe burqa, the image depicts a distraught woman slumped on a cement stairwell, the work of Afghanistan's first street artists who use graffiti to chronicle violence and oppression.
The female-male duo surreptitiously spray-paint the crumbling and dilapidated walls of buildings in the capital city, abandoned and destroyed during 30 years of war that still rages today.
Talking of her woman on the steps, Shamsia Hassani, 24, said: "She is wondering if she can get up, or if she will fall down. Women in Afghanistan need to be careful with every step they take."
Omar Sobhani / Reuters, file
Shamsia Hassani signs one of her works in Kabul on Dec. 19, 2010. A group of women in burqas rises from the sea to symbolise cleanliness, while further down the factory wall a bus with no wheels and crammed with passengers is a stark comment on war-torn Kabul's appalling public transport.
The somber depictions of Afghan women on Kabul's rutted streets offer rare public insight into their lives, still marred by violence and injustice despite progress in women's rights since the Taliban was toppled over a decade ago.
In an abandoned textile factory, Hassani spray-painted a wall with six willowy figures in sky-blue burqas, who rise out of the ground like ghosts.
"In three decades of war, women have had to carry the greatest burdens on their shoulders," Hassani, who also works in the faculty of fine arts at Kabul University, told Reuters. Read the full story.
Leave a Comment:
Wish Shamsia Hassani luck. Jehovah or Allah don't care.
God does care; "Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you." How do I know? I have been saved for 39 years and live on this indian Reservation, and God is so good to me.
Please do not say my God doesn' t care! My God has a Son, His name is Jesus Christ, he went about doing good. Salvation can make a difference in a person's life. Have a good day.
It is not that your God doesn't care, because no God or Gods exist. If belief in a mythical creature makes you a good citizen, then good for us.
It's a start I suppose. I can't imagine the prison they live in. I suppose they are so sheltered from the world that most women in Afghanistan do not know there is a different way. The women who I find most annoying are the ones from the oil rich nations that come to the west to enjoy the hard fought freedoms, then quietly return to the supression of the theocracies that they enable.
The entire issue with the burnt Korans found in the garbage was with the men. There was not one woman in the protests against the Americans and NATO, not a single woman. This leads to the conclusion that the women in Afghanistan have no interest in the tenets of Islam, nor in worshiping mass produced paper holy books.
There are some that are being heard. It will make a better world when people listen.
Is it possible that they will have acid throw in their faces if they don't return to quiet supression or if they protest? It's tough to know what motivates people to do what they do or don't do until you walk a mile in their shoes.
Ghosts on the wall....says so much about a woman's position in Muslim countries. No face, no form, no hope.
Sharia is a refuge for men unsure of their manhood (seemingly a majority in most cultures), and women who hate to shave their pits.
IF all if not most of the women would leave Afganistan I'd bet Lasting change would come VERY quickly.
And they would go and make their living how? And how would they escape? With what? Where would they go? Would their military and their country just say, "Okay, have fun", or would they hunt them down and drag them back and do god knows what to them?
This kind of HORRIBLE CARNAGE on Humans is WHAT AMERICANS as AMERICAS should TAKe OUT!!!! Take OUT the Head and the body dies! Don't decimate whole countries like IRAQ and Libya because they DON"T obey!!! they aren't your citizens! And we don't have to OBEY Authorities who are murderers! And GOOD people in AUTHORITY would dispatch their special teams and take out the monster head in charge of this...but NO! We decimate who countries FOR NO REASON!!! And you don't think other little countries and people ARE EMULATING THE ONCE great AMERICA????> wE NEED TO FIRE our Whole congress except for 3 people and GET True American in OFFICE AGAIN - NOT WARMONGERS!!!
The politicians don't decimate for no reason, Roberta. They have their own evil, selfish objectives. I agree with you that Congress needs to be cleaned out. I think most of them need to be arrested for treason and put on trial and punished accordingly. But the people aren't uncomfortable enough, yet. The people will wait until it is all too late before they try to save their freedoms. And I agree, the war mongering needs to stop. I ache watching all of this happen, too. I try to do at least something small everyday to be proactive about protecting our liberties. I'm amazed at how apathetic many people are. And I agree with you that we should stay out of the business of other countries. We don't have the right to tell them what to do.