A group of artist girls in Herat are attempting to develop Nuristani engraving in this province. Nuristani engraving originally comes from Nuristan province, which has been popular in Herat for three years. A number of these artist girls, after being deprived of school and university, have turned to the art of engraving.
“Nuristani engraving is made by its formulas; Even its measurement has a formula and it has a certain style in general,” said Suraya Sadat, an artist. These artists create various works of art by engraving on wood. This art, with its special elegance, requires a lot of patience.
“A lot of precision is needed for this work, which is why women and girls can do this work more easily than men. Because women are very good at this,” said Malika Sadat, an artist. The girls who have turned to Nuristani engraving after being deprived of education, are trying to replace the feeling of being in school and university classes by participating in this workshop to some extent.
“I was a student and since the day the schools were closed, because I was very interested in engraving, that’s why I started the art of engraving,” said Madina Darwishi, an artist. According to cultural experts, this art has a history of thousands of years and has spread from Nuristan to other parts of the country.
These artists are trying to revive Nuristani engraving like other ancient arts in Herat. Artists from Afghanistan’s ArtLords painted tulips murals in Kabul and three other provinces to honor the victims of the war in the country.
ArtLords chairman Omaid Sharifi said that so far 25,000 tulips have been painted on surroundings of main some offices in Kabul and other provinces, including the office of Afghanistan’s Human Rights Commission.
He said each tulip represents a victim of war in the country. “The people of Afghanistan are killed and martyred every day. This is not a statistics only; they all were the humans with many ambitions and hopes and wanted to live, but unfortunately, they are martyred inhumanly and we wanted to honor and remember them at least with one tulip,” Mr. Sharifi said.
Afghanistan’s ArtLords, a group of Afghan activists and artists in Kabul, was nominated for 2019 Freedom of Expression Awards.
The group has painted a series of murals on Kabul walls, highlighting social problems, supporting Afghan forces, defending freedom of expression and women’s rights. Index on Censorship’s Freedom of Expression Awards exists to celebrate individuals or groups who have had a significant impact fighting censorship anywhere in the world.
ArtLords is a grassroots movement of artists and volunteers in Afghanistan who encourage ordinary citizens, especially women and children, to paint murals on issues which concern them. ArtLords completed over 400 murals in 16 provinces of the country. In March 2018, for International Women’s Day, ArtLords painted a tribute to Professor Hamida Barmaki, a human rights defender killed in a terrorist attack six years ago.—Tolonews
