Some brave social activists are using the medium of street art to heal wounds in war-ravaged
Afghanistan. This was revealed by Omaid Sharifi, the 33-year-old founder of the
Kabul based street art group, ArtLords.
In an engaging
session moderated by JNU scholar Kaustubh Naik at the Goa Arts and Literature
Festival 2019 that was held at the International Centre Goa, Dona Paula, Omaid
explained how Kabul, a once beautiful city, was now pock-marked by hundreds of
concrete, ‘blast walls’, which gave the city a very weary look.
“All of us feel
depressed watching these walls every day, hence I decided to get a team of
artists together to paint meaningful, colourful graffiti on these walls,” Omaid
said.
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Omaid revealed that
despite being war-torn for the last 40 years, the Afghan media had freedom of
speech and hence procuring government permission to paint the walls was not a
hurdle.
Omaid, who screened a
short film on the street art undertaken by his organisation in Kabul, said that
they painted social messages in almost all murals. “We lose almost a 100 people
across the country every day to violence. Sadly, these lovely human beings just
remain numbers. This is why in many places we have actually painted the faces
of young victims like a college going girl or a young school child. This is our
way of remembering the innocent victims and also a message to the militants to
stop the violence,” Omaid said.
Omaid said that his
team had painted as many as 1,700 murals across Afghanistan in the last few
years. “We have begun painting images of yesteryear Afghan heroes in the field
of sport, music and the arts, so that our young children could identify with
their once happy heritage. Otherwise, our children only see War Lords and people
carrying guns and rockets every day,” Omaid said.
Omaid also said that
his group routinely combined the mural art with street plays and music on the
streets of Kabul and some other Afghan towns. “Today, almost all our murals are
intact and have not been defaced, because the common Afghan has taken personal
ownership of the same. The common people treat this art as their own,” Omaid
said.
Ending
the conversation on an upbeat note, Omaid said, “We are all watching the peace
negotiations between America and the Taliban very closely. To begin with, we
just want a ceasefire and an end to the violence that has ravaged us.”
