A group of Kabul artists, including women, opened an exhibition in the west of the city on Friday, proudly displaying over 160 works of art including calligraphy, miniatures and paintings.
One organizer, Zahra Alizada, said there has been a good turnout among female artists who have displayed their work.
“Despite the challenges women and girls are faced with, we witnessed good participation from them at the exhibition,” she said. “We want to encourage women to move forward in their lives.”
Female artists who are participating in the exhibition said they hope that schools and universities will soon be reopened for women and girls.
“We want women and girls to have access to education. Every society needs educated women. If they are barred from education, we will not have a healthy society,” said Zainab Qasimi, an artist.
Some paintings meanwhile display haunting images of women. Two paintings in particular, show lonely silhouettes, shrouded in burqas.
“I attended the exhibition to portray the people’s suffering through my artworks,” said Arzo Salehi, one female artist. “We hope that schools are reopened for girls so that we can follow up our dreams.”
An organizer of the event said the idea behind the exhibition was to encourage the youth through arts and motivate them to move forward in their lives.
“I was motivated by my students to hold the exhibition and we want to promote different types of art among the people,” said Bashir Ahmad, another organizer of the event.
Many visitors to the exhibition also stressed the need for schools and universities to be reopened for girls in Afghanistan.
