![]() They tend to be boldly outlined geometric figures with lustrous colors whose many shades meld together seamlessly. The depictions of women across Hassani's body of work express a broad spectrum of emotions: longing and defiance, hope and heartbreak, freedom and fear. ![]() Her response to an extremist attack on a maternity ward that killed pregnant women, their unborn children and newborns She cannot see her future A composite paint-on-photograph work from November 2020 expressed grief in the aftermath of an attack on Kabul University, where Hassani is a professor of fine arts.Ī grey-toned image from May of that same year was made in response to a deadly attack on a maternity ward. Hassani has also used her art to respond directly to attacks by the Taliban and other extremist groups, creating searing images of pain and loss. I try to make people look at them differently." ![]() She wanted to change how people perceive Afghan women, including those who wear the burqa, a full-body covering, she said: "I try to show them bigger than what they are in reality, and in modern forms, in shaped in happiness, movement, maybe stronger. In fact, graffiti's ability to publicly highlight the challenges that Afghan women face - but also their strength and resolution - was a major reason Hassani chose to work with the medium, she told Street Art Bio. The precarious situation of women and girls in the male-dominated Afghan society has been at the forefront of her work since she started spraying. She had already completed her degrees when she took up graffiti and street art in 2010. Hassani in 2013, making graffiti at the French Cultural Center in Kabul Making women visible and changing perceptionsīorn in 1988 in Iran to refugee Afghan parents, Hassani returned to Afghanistan in 2005 to study painting and visual arts at Kabul University. Hundreds of followers commented in response, concerned and praying for the women of Afghanistan and for the Kabul-based Hassani's safety. Two powerful images showing girls in radiant blue carrying images of hope as dark, menacing gun-toting fighters loom over them - expressions of the extreme fear, despair and violent repression Afghan women now face - earned tens of thousands of likes on Instagram and were shared thousands of times on Facebook. This past week, as the Taliban took power in one Afghan province after another, eventually capturing Kabul, Hassani's presence on social media found even greater resonance. She landed on Foreign Policy's 2014 top 100 global thinkers list and was included in the second volume of Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls, a best-selling collection of portraits of game-changing women from around the world. As Afghanistan's first female graffiti and street artist, known for her bold promotion of women's voices, she had traveled to do on-site murals and participate in residencies and gallery exhibitions in numerous North American, European and Asian countries. Shamsia Hassani had already reached a certain level of international success over the past years.
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