Collection: Shamsia Hassani

(Kandahar 1988)

Born in Kandahar in 1988, she is Afghanistan's first street-artist and has dedicated herself to street-art since 2010. Through her works, Shamsia portrays Afghan women with a different face, with power, ambitions and the will to achieve their desires. She claims that with her work she wants to oppose the oppression of Afghan women in their society.

“I want to color the bad memories of the war,” Hassani said in an interview, “and if I color these bad memories, then I erase the war from people's minds. I want to make Afghanistan famous for its art, not for its war”.

Shamsia Hassani taught sculpture until December 2021. Now she is forced to live in hiding due to her activity as a street writer. Her murals are constantly canceled by the authorities, but she doesn't stop, because, she says, "art is stronger than war".