Fatimah Hossaini is an Afghan artist, photographer, curator, exhibitioner and a fashion photographer in Afghanistan. She is the founder of Mastooraat Organisation which works for women, art, youth and peace. Through her photographs, she pushes the boundaries on cultural norms in the country. Art for her is a medium through which she can convey the beauty of her country—its culture, people, landscape, food and more. Her work is interestingly different from her contemporaries as instead of capturing her country destroyed by years of war, she chooses to focus on the beauty that still survives and hopes to provide hope and strength to her fellow Afghans to remember that their country is not only made up of war and misery.
Women have also been at the centre of her work. Through her work, she hopes to showcase beauty of Afghan women to the world, highlighting their strength instead of their weaknesses. In her photography series called “Pearl in the Oyster”, she celebrates the progress that women have made and continue to make in terms of liberation. The photographs depict powerful and bright Afghan women who occupy male dominated public spaces in defiance of the patriarchal order. The series has been shot along Chicken Street, a street that is a common part of Kabul’s everyday life. Fatimah believes that her series will will highlight the beauty of femininity and capture the resilience of Afghan women alongside forgotten cultural objects that are an important part of Afghanistan’s plurality and rich history.
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