Hafiza Qasimi is a Victim of American Imperialism's Criminal Destruction of Afghan Society - Please Help Her Escape
I have been asked my a German friend to post this on behalf of an Afghan woman who is the target of repression in the catastrophe that American imperialism has left. Afghanistan is another example of the destructive capacity of US imperialism.
It was the United States, which with its Saudi and Pakistani allies, who funded the Islamic fundamentalist opposition to a liberal bourgeois regime that was established in Afghanistan in 1979. Supported by the Soviet Union the Americans had no hesitation in support Islamic Fundamentalist groups in order to subvert an indigenous revolution. The Taliban itself was the creation of Pakistan’s equivalent of the CIA, the ISI.
Hafiza is just one of the many casualties of the West’s and in this case NATO’s invasion of Afghanistan. Please support if you can.
Tony Greenstein
Hafiza Qasimi is a young Afghan woman artist who had her own art gallery, taught students, and was economically independent.
One week after the Taliban came to power the Taliban destroyed her paintings. For a while she went underground but then decided she would not be silenced. Together with other young women she rapidly created several paintings and photographed them before burning the paintings. Just a short time later the Taliban came to her home to search for evidence she was painting again – had they found it Hafiza believes she would have been executed.
The images she, and her colleagues, painted are a powerful testament of life for women under the Taliban. Hafiza says,
With my art I want to show how equal we Afghan women are to men and all other people in the world. I want to show that to the people of Afghanistan, but also to the whole world.
Before the Taliban came to power, I had a gallery where I exhibited my paintings. I had students whom I taught to draw. I earned my own money. I could live from my work as an artist. If I needed something, I could buy it. Now I have to ask my brother, with whom I live in Kabul, for money. I wanted to study at an art school, to get better, to get really good. All that is now completely out of reach.
… I feel paralysed. To continue painting would be life-threatening. This morning I made breakfast for everyone, washed the dishes, the things you do as a housewife. It's hard to describe how awful I find the idea of having to do this all my life. I'm an artist, I have all these things in my head that I want to express. And now I do housework and look after the children - who knows for how long, maybe forever”
(translated from https://chrismon.evangelisch.de/hafiza)
Hafiza’s brother Mohammed Anosh now lives in Germany and has been organising exhibitions of her photographed work. We are supporting his attempts to get his sister to Germany. Hafiza needs 10,000 Euros in a German bank account, a visa, a place at an art college, and health insurance. She should be able to get a visa in Iran and we expect her to get a place at college. All that remains are the 10,000 Euros. We have raised 5.000 so far. Please support Hafiza in the name of artistic freedom everywhere, and as a feminist artist (see examples of her paintings here – the text is in German but there are several paintings https://katapult-mv.de/artikel/ausstellung-frauen-in-afghanistan-rostock)
The website (BetterPlace) for donation is likewise in German but is easy to understand. Press the Spenden button, decide on amount and means of payment (credit card or Klarna). https://www.betterplace.me/ein-visum-fuer-die-freiheit