Weapon of Mass Expression
Venturing out under the moonlight, she uses the walls of abandoned buildings that have been damaged from bombs as her canvases. With less than 20 minutes to complete her work, she must work fast before she is caught. She uses cans of spray paint as her weapon of mass expression. Colorful murals of joyful women with musical instruments appear as the sun rises above the horizon. What was once a destroyed slab of rubble has now become beauty amidst the darkness of war. Her name is Shamsia Hassani and she is the voice of Afghan women. Female street artists, like Hassani, use their artwork as a platform to break gender roles and stereotypes. After hundreds of years of mistreatment and injustice, women in most countries …show more content…
While she began her work in Afghanistan, Hassani is currently living in Kabul, where she is pursuing a bachelors and masters degree in visual art. Hassani’s mission is to use her artwork to subvert the gender roles that exist within Afghanistan. In a recent interview she says, “I have changed my images to show the strength of women, the joy of women. In my artwork, there is lots of movement. I want to show that women have returned to Afghan society with a new, stronger shape. It’s not the woman who stays at home. It’s a new woman. A woman who is full of energy, who wants to start again. You can see that in my artwork, I want to change the shape of women. …show more content…
Artist, Malina Suliman, has also taken on the challenge to stop the neglect of women in Afghanistan through her artwork that criticized countries that required women to wear burqas in her street art. I her opinion, men are using the burqa which takes away the freedom from the women. In the United States, street artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh has created her own campaign called Stop Telling Women to Smile. Her goal is to address gender based harassment by posting hand drawn portraits of women in the streets. Under these portraits are captions, such as “My worth extends far beyond my body” and “My outfit is not an invitation.” The power of these images speak directly to offenders who place labels on women. Although street art is known as risky and masculine, Hassani, Tatyana, and Suliman have defied the odds and influenced other women to take a stand against gender roles. Their work has given a voice to the women who have been ignored for so many
Venturing out under the moonlight, she uses the walls of abandoned buildings that have been damaged from bombs as her canvases. With less than 20 minutes to complete her work, she must work fast before she is caught. She uses cans of spray paint as her weapon of mass expression. Colorful murals of joyful women with musical instruments appear as the sun rises above the horizon. What was once a destroyed slab of rubble has now become beauty amidst the darkness of war. Her name is Shamsia Hassani and she is the voice of Afghan women. Female street artists, like Hassani, use their artwork as a platform to break gender roles and stereotypes. After hundreds of years of mistreatment and injustice, women in most countries …show more content…
While she began her work in Afghanistan, Hassani is currently living in Kabul, where she is pursuing a bachelors and masters degree in visual art. Hassani’s mission is to use her artwork to subvert the gender roles that exist within Afghanistan. In a recent interview she says, “I have changed my images to show the strength of women, the joy of women. In my artwork, there is lots of movement. I want to show that women have returned to Afghan society with a new, stronger shape. It’s not the woman who stays at home. It’s a new woman. A woman who is full of energy, who wants to start again. You can see that in my artwork, I want to change the shape of women. …show more content…
Artist, Malina Suliman, has also taken on the challenge to stop the neglect of women in Afghanistan through her artwork that criticized countries that required women to wear burqas in her street art. I her opinion, men are using the burqa which takes away the freedom from the women. In the United States, street artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh has created her own campaign called Stop Telling Women to Smile. Her goal is to address gender based harassment by posting hand drawn portraits of women in the streets. Under these portraits are captions, such as “My worth extends far beyond my body” and “My outfit is not an invitation.” The power of these images speak directly to offenders who place labels on women. Although street art is known as risky and masculine, Hassani, Tatyana, and Suliman have defied the odds and influenced other women to take a stand against gender roles. Their work has given a voice to the women who have been ignored for so many