The woman in many of her pieces seems to be an avatar of Hassani herself . “ The woman in [ much of ] my work is like a character in a film . She is the main character of my movie ,” she says . Her “ main character ” dons a burqa sometimes and not others . She is somber in her reflection of her surroundings in some pieces and celebrates the vivid beauty of her culture , heritage and city in others .
Hassani does not wear a burqa on a day to day basis ( Kabul is a more progressive city ). However , when family visits from the more conservative city of Kandahar , she will wear a burqa to take pictures with them . She explains that some Afghani women feel more comfortable in the burqa and are able to accomplish more . “ People cannot see [ the women ] when they wear a burqa , but the women can see everybody .” While the burqa is often seen as oppressive , “ It is not a cage , like people think it is ,” she says .
In her work as a whole , Hassani strives to reveal the woman under the burqa . She believes that freedom is not necessarily to shed the burqa , because if a woman takes it off she would still have problems with inequality . But for this artist , to graffiti the burqa on the walls of Kabul is to raise inquiry about what liberation means .
Rajul Punjabi
Rajul Punjabi is a journalist and an adjunct instructor at City College of New York . With over seven years of magazine experience , Punjabi has written extensively about hip hop music and culture , race , social justice , art and gender . Her byline has appeared in The New York Daily News , Playboy , VIBE , GIANT , The Village Voice , and on Billboard . com and AOL ’ s The Boombox . You can find her on Twitter
@ rajulpunjabi . ( Photo : Shimeah Davis )
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