Painting inspires Afghan girls to break through confinements of tradition

An Afghani artist is hoping to use art to change the conservative country's strict traditions

Afghanistan: “My prime objective is to portray the suffering of my fellow Afghans in paintings and exhibit them to highlight the pains of the war-weary people,” said Hafiza Mohammadi.

Dressed in a style mixing Western and traditional features, drawing picture of a Western-styled girl in her rented office, Mohammadi said that girls in Afghanistan should have the right to choose how to dress and live for themselves. In the conservative Afghan society where people especially in the countryside deeply believe in old-fashioned traditions, women and girls are not allowed to wear Western-style cloths, nor to go to school.

Women and girls living in Afghanistan’s rural areas even cannot go outside home unless they are accompanied by a close male relative.

Artist Mohammadi believes that her paintings and painting exhibitions will gradually help change people’s mindset towards modernism.

“Through painting and arranging exhibitions, I like to display the problems and pains of people particularly women and girls have faced in society,” Mohammadi said.

Young people, especially girls in the relatively peaceful Mazar-e-Sharif city, welcome fine art and have approached her to learn, she said.

“Many people, especially the women and girls are interested in learning painting, but unfortunately many parents do not allow their girls to come out of their homes to learn the art due to cultural barriers and security incidents,” the ambitious female Afghan painter said.

To win parents’ support and assure them of their girls’ safety in painting classes, Mohammadi has rented a house in the city’s safe area and turned it into an “Art House for Women” for her teaching.