Shamsia Hassani Blog Post #5

Roba Alamari 

Media 384

5/6/17

I consider the work of Shamsia Hassani to be super feminist and empowering. She is actually Afghanistans first female graffiti artist. She was born in 1988 in Teheran, Iran. She began her work in workshops in early 2010 and soon took to the streets. Hassani risks her life to do street art. She often receives backlash and harassment when people spot her painting on walls. This is solely for two reasons: because she’s a woman and because she’s publicly expressing herself. The notion of a women’s invisibility and silence is instilled in many parts of Afghan culture. A woman going out and making powerful statements on public property is quite rare. Despite her good intentions, many take offense to her visibility and use it as an opportunity to provoke fear and harass her. For this reason, she sketches and gets all the equipment ready before hand so that she can finish her artwork quickly without having to deal with the backlash. She mostly paints portraits of women in hijabs and burqas and takes a slightly different approach when it comes to the underlying message behind them. Hassani is featured as one of the artists on the website known as “kabulartproject.com” and her bio describes her paintings as ones of hope, symbolization, and life experiences. It states,

“In her graffiti, Shamsia often paints women in Burqas/women in symbolic shapes, and fishes, symbols of the atmosphere flowing around her and her own life experiences. She is the first female graffiti Artist and first 3D street art Artist of Afghanistan and uses her art to help bring positive changes to people and more specifically to wash away the depressing memories of long-time war having taken place in her country, “ (1). 

Here is one of her works of art displayed on public property in Afghanistan.
You can check out more @ http://www.kabulartproject.com/artists/shamsia-hassani/

She wants to represent women that are happy with the movement and to send a positive message. Hassani takes pride in the empowerment of women and uses her art as a platform to represent the power that they hold. Her artwork symbolizes  her voice and the narrative of so many other women. She hopes that her art will inspire women to leave their homes and make contributions to society and refuses to stop painting, despite the dangers that come with it. Today, she teaches fine art at kabul university and was awarded the afghan contemporary art prize in 2009. 

What I love about her art is that it isn’t self-serving. It’s risking her own life for the betterment of those who are silenced despite being constantly affected by the ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan. She does it for women to not only tell them that there is hope for the future, but to encourage them to do more and to make something of themselves with their potential. She’s breaking boundaries. Art is the medium by which the world can intersect and understand one another. It’s a universal language and it’s minimalistic in the sense of visualization, but can somehow be more powerful and efficient in telling stories and speaking to the audience. It’s easy for us to speak out here in America, but the rebellious fire that comes from within is truly shown under oppressive circumstances. Hassani is a great example of the embodiment of feminism because of her mission: which is to mobilize women in her country and create a atmosphere of a hope. 

"Once Upon A Time"

Works Cited:

- "Shamsia Hassani." Kabul Art Project. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 May 2017.

- "NowThis." Facebook - Log In or Sign Up. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 May 2017.

-"Interview: Shamsia Hassani." Street Art Bio | Street Artists Biographies. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 May 2017.