For Rada Akbar, art is the medium through which she expresses her own thoughts and the grim reality surrounding her life living as a woman in Afghanistan. Starting her career in visual arts as a painter, she now uses photography to narrate stories and document the life of Afghan people, specifically women.
If for the Taliban their skewed interpretation of the sharia law is a tool for oppression, then for Akbar her camera lens is a tool for justice.Braving threats and beating all odds, Akbar has successfully put a number of exhibitions, both offline and online, which provide not only a scathing commentary on the status of Afghan women, but also honours them as survivors who refuse to bow down even in the face of difficulty . For instance, her project Abarzanan (Superwomen) is an ode to the courage and resilience of Afghan women who braved patriarchal oppression. This exhibition includes the installation of female mannequins, honouring Afghan women who’ve carved their own way to success in an intensely oppressive culture . These include poets, mountain climbers, politicians, TV presenters, musicians and others who rose to fame in Afghanistan. Not only does Akbar’s exhibition celebrates the achievements of women, but her work also pays homage to women who lost their lives because they lived in an oppressive society that curbed women’s freedom. One such woman is known as Rokhshana, a 19-year-old from the central Afghan province of Ghor, who was stoned to death for her refusal to agree to a forced marriage. In Akbar’s own words, her work reminder to all those powerful men that Afghan women refuse to submit to the boundaries created for them or suffer in silence.
Sources