On the Occasion of the International Women's Day : An Exhibition on Kurdish Women in France/Lille
Ali Asker
Women in France/Lille
07/03/2004 KWAHK
Women's Lives, Artist's View
By KWAHK
On Monday March 8th and on the occasion of the International Women's
Day, Kurdish Women Action against Honour Killing (KWAHK) and the French
Organisation La Pluie d'Oiseaux will inaugurate an exhibition on Kurdish
women at the Council Hall of the French City of Lille. The event, in which
more than 800 women are invited to participate, will be opened by Martine
Aubry, the mayor of Lille. The exhibition is part of a project called "Women
's Lives, Artists Views", which is a collaborative project between KWAHK,
the Women Cultural and Information Centre (WCIC) based in Sulaimanya and the
French Organisation La Pluie d'Oiseaux.
What is the goal:
The aim of the project is to shed light upon and raise awareness about
the realities faced by women in Iraqi Kurdistan. It seeks to offer an
opportunity to Kurdish women from different backgrounds to make their
experiences known and their voices heard. This is pursued by combining the
narration of individual stories with artistic interpretations of these
testimonies, in an ensemble echoing the call for a better world. Also, the
project looks to inform public opinion of the aspirations and way of life of
women in this part of the world, with the aim of generating deeper
reflection. Finally, this is part of a process aimed at breaching isolation
and establishing a dialogue between Kurdish women and the world beyond their
immediate locality.
In the centre of the project, there will be Heshu Yunis, the 16 year
Kurdish girl who was killed by her father on October 2002, in West London.
Heshu will be commemorated in this event; her story, her photograph and two
paintings relating to her short and tragic life will occupy the centre of
the venue. The paintings have been made by the famous Kurdish artist Rebwar
Saeed, who was for a time Heshu's art teacher in West London.
Background of the project:
Women's life, artist's view was born in March 2002 during a visit by
Olivier Touron, a photojournalist, in Iraqi Kurdistan. Olivier, representing
the French organisation La Pluie d'Oiseaux met a group of women activists
who expressed their desire to work on a joint project about the lives of
women in Kurdistan. From this encounter the project came to life and was
baptised "women's life, artist's view". Back in France, Olivier Touron and
other representatives of the Raining of Birds met members of the Kurdish
Women Action against Honour Killing and decided to carry out the project
together with the feminist organisation Women Cultural and Information
Centre in Sulaimanya. All the while, Saddam Hussain was still in power and
the constraints upon organisation were considerable, yet from mid-2002 the
project rapidly began to come to fruition.
Development of the project:
Since March 2002, Talar Nadr from the organisation WCIC has been
working on the ground to develop the project. From Halabja in the south to
Balissan in the north, Talar travelled hundreds of kilometres to meet and
interview women. She encountered difficulties in the beginning to talk to
the women and take their pictures. According to Talar "they were afraid of
reprisals from the regime".
The women were chosen from different socio-economic and cultural
backgrounds. During interviews they would tell their story and draw a
picture of a bird, the symbol of freedom. Talar then photographed each woman
with her drawing. Later, the story, the symbolic bird and their picture were
given to a woman artist to make a painting. The ensemble of representations
made their way to France in January 2003, just before the war started.
Arriving in France, the text of each story (provided in Kurdish, French and
English), the photograph and painting were framed as a distinctive portrait
of each woman in question. As a whole, there are 34 paintings representing
34 lives deeply marked by pain, suffering and an extraordinary struggle for
freedom and justice.
Who are these women?
They are between 7 and 54 years old. They carry in themselves the
suffering of the Kurdish people: imprisonment, physical and psychological
torture, deportation, life in the concentration camps, chemical bombardment,
exodus and genocide. Their history witnesses one of the main human tragedies
of the 20th century. The stories are not only the story of Rezan, Nasrin, or
Shilan; it is the story of all Kurdish women.
Although they are mainly victims of the dictatorial baathist regime
under Saddam Hussein, these women are also victims of the patriarchal
system. Their bodies, spirits and lives are appropriated by the male members
of their families and community, who subject them to another form of
violence, no less terrible than the violence of the State. However, these
women are not only victims, they also intervene to resist. They are writers,
women military officers, musicians, working mothers and so on. Each wages
combat against injustice and repression, to make way for a better life.
Venue: Hotel de Ville/ Lille
Date & time : March 8th, 7pm- 10pm.
The exhibition will be on until Sunday, March 14th.
Contact: in...@kwahk.org
Kurdish Women Action against Honour Killing
www.kwahk.org
http://www.kurdishmedia.com/news.asp?id=4749