Ommolbanin Hassani was born in Afghanistan in 1988 and she is defined a revolutionary for her effort in introducing the conception of female artists into Afghanistan’s Islamic society. The young artist attended school in Iran, where she was forced to flee with her family when the Afghan Civil War broke out but she was not allowed to access art’s courses due to her immigrate status. The Hassanis moved back to Afghanistan after the end of the Civil War and the subsequent beginning of the American Occupation. At this point, she was able to enter university and, in 2005, she graduated at Kabul University with a degree in arts.

She specialised in the graffiti form of art because spray cans are cheaper to afford and easier to find, particularly in a Third World Country with a never-ending conflict between the government, backed by the US, and the Taliban subversive groups. Her life until 2021, in a fairly “free” country was almost regular.  She managed to attend university, travel, express with paintings and report some connotations of the Islamic society. In 2013 she said that:” I want to make Afghanistan famous for its art, not its war.” But,  as the history repeated itself, starting by September 2021, the Taliban have already started to suppress and to isolate women from the society, they  have taken control of the country, ruling over it and  banning almost all education for women and girls, imposing punishments including stoning, lashing, and amputation, and confining women to their homes unless they are escorted by a male family member,  denying them access to most employment .

Across the years her graffiti gave voice with her art to a mute protest and she managed to denounce the Afghan women’s situation.

In 2013 she became famous all over the world for what she was doing and, the artist, started to receive invitation to expose her artworks in exhibitions throughout the Western Countries, especially in the US. She  also came to Italy for the Florence Biennale and, in this occasion, she was commissioned a graffiti by the City of Florence.

Currently, she has been interviewed by The Los Angeles Times, The Guardian and The Huffington alongside with hundreds other newspaper worldwide, and, as of today, she is one of the most famous Islamic artists women.

Personally, the kind of art she produces is not of my taste, but I recognize that the attempt perpetrated by Shamsia Hassani deserves respect and is definitely a proof that there’s always a beacon of hope, even inside one of the harshest regimes in the world.

The graffiti that I prefer was posted on Instagram on April 6, 2021 and depicts a mouthless Arab woman with a paper plane on her right hand staring to a fighter flying overhead. In the background we can see a red painted city while, in the foreground, there are some dandelions. This graffiti can have multiple meaning, I’ll try to analyse its significate starting from the date on which this was posted. Not much before the end of march, the US administration ordered the air force to relocate outside Afghan’s border in order to support the forthcoming withdrawing. From this perspective the fighter is going away, carrying with it, figuratively, the US presence there and leaving down below an unimaginable bloodshed between the Taliban and the no longer US supported Afghan military. In this instance, the girl would, probably, fly like a paper plane away from Afghanistan bringing her dreams and her hope abroad. Alternatively, the graffiti could not depict the NATO withdrawing, but on the opposite, a NATO air strike over a terrorist position that resulted in civilian casualties.

In any case, the suffering that the Afghans have been living is inconceivable and we should ask ourselves and to our current and past leaders: “What was made in the past 20 years, has been enough to prevent other bloodshed?”

Sadly, I think we already know what the answer to that question would be…