Afghan Artist Brushes Aside Disability to Open Arts Centre

Unable to use her hands, arms, or legs, Afghan artist Robaba Mohammadi has defied unlikely odds in a country that routinely discriminates against women and disabled people.

Denied access to school, as a child she taught herself to paint by holding a brush in her mouth, clenching it between her teeth to create elaborate and colourful portraits.

Today, the 19-year-old’s works sell and exhibit internationally, and she is so accomplished that she has launched a dedicated centre to help train other disabled artists.

“I do paintings mostly about Afghan women, women’s power, the beauty of women, the beauty of paintings, love, and the challenges women face,” Mohammadi said.

Some 50 students attend classes at her centre in Kabul, which she opened last year and funds herself with money from selling her paintings.

 

According to a 2015 national survey, about 1.5 million of Afghanistan’s approximately 35 million population has some form of disability, including tens of thousands of people suffering from landmine injuries.

But despite this, the impoverished country still stigmatises those that are not able-bodied.

Mohammadi was born with a permanent physical disability that means she cannot use her limbs, and now suffers from a degenerative condition called arthrosis.

“Because of my disability, I was never even able to go to school,” Mohammadi said, adding that she had looked on enviously as her siblings went to get an education.

But with the help of her family, she eventually taught herself to read and write, and can now use social media on her mobile phone as adeptly as any other teenager -- by typing with her tongue.

“We are so proud of Robaba, she is an inspiration for other disabled people,” said her brother, 24-year-old Ali Mohammadi, who hopes to create a literacy course for people with disabilities who have been unable to go to school.

Double prejudice

Ultra-conservative Afghanistan, long considered one of the world’s worst places to be a woman, still often forces disabled women to stay hidden away, even in the comparatively progressive capital Kabul.

“I was feeling tired and sick of not being able to leave home,” Mohammadi said.

“I felt really upset. When our relatives would visit, they would whisper that my parents committed some kind of sin that they delivered a disabled girl.”

Benafsha Yaqoobi, commissioner at the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, said such treatment was because there was often double the prejudice, “due to womanhood and due to disabilities”.

“All these are the results of discrimination, caused by negative attitudes towards females as so-called, ‘second sex’, and disability, looked (at) not as a diversity, but as a shame and stigma,” Yaqoobi said.

Noor Ahmad Azizi, a 22-year-old disabled student at Mohammadi’s painting centre, said he had been unable to attend school because of his disability.

“I love to do painting,” Azizi said. “I would love to learn to paint professionally, and I also want to become famous like Robaba.”

Ziaul Haq Fazli, a spokesman for the Afghan ministry for martyrs and disabled people, said more than 320,000 disabled people and relatives of those killed in the war were registered with the ministry, which helps provide jobs and educational opportunities.

For Mohammadi, art was a way to release her frustration.

She first started drawing by holding a pencil loosely in her mouth, but then realised she could improve details in her sketches by clenching the pencil between her teeth.

“It was very difficult and I cried several times,” she explained as she coloured a vibrant scene featuring a large tree.

“It was hard to do the lighting and shading of the paintings, then my dad encouraged me,” she added.

Source : https://www.hindustantimes.com/art-and-culture/afghan-artist-brushes-aside-disability-to-open-arts-centre/story-aav43Ch91iLWsTe1dDJoXM.html

Accept your child’s disability and help them overcome it

By Mukta Narain Thind

Every child has a right to play and nothing should stop children from manifesting their full potential, irrespective of their physical or intellectual disabilities. This is my personal belief.

I work with young children through a programme called the Special Olympics Youth Athletes, which aims to bring inclusive sport play to children with and without intellectual disabilities, ages two seven years.

I have directly been involved with the programme and the children and I have learnt that it is never too late to turn the lives of these children around. I have seen hope in the eyes of parents when their child is able to perform the simplest of activities, like throwing a ball in the net. It also makes them happy when these children are able to walk without support.

Our aim had been to focus on holistic development and training that goes beyond classrooms into the playing fields, cultural and community centres, to motivate children with disabilities to join and remain in school and create role models who will inspire children and also motivate parents into sending their children to school and to participate in sports and other extra-curricular activities.

Personally, the programme has also given me an understanding of grassroot challenges and the dividing and unifying elements. An administrative unit can be divided by castes but communities can be unified and brought together though the smallest activities of these young athletes. When a schoolteacher or youth in a village becomes a leader to lead these activities in communities, we have witnessed a transformation.

In my 13 years of association with Special Bharat Olympics, I have grown and learnt much from these children. There have been instances when I feel that these children have impacted my life in a big way. One particular incident stands out for me. An international corporate group runs an eyewitness programme where a select few employees visited, interacting with children with intellectual disabilities. For this, we do family visits to different parts of India and have done four trips in the past two years. In this particular case, we travelled with a group of 20 foreigners to a district called Birbhum in West Bengal to meet a 10-year-old boy who lived in the slums.

His father abandoned him at an early age and he had a milestone delay, which left him with an intellectual disability. None of the children in the village wanted to play with him. That day, he was given new shoes and clothes and we started playing with him. Suddenly, we noticed the whole village was witnessing what was happening. When this group of 20 visited his dwelling, the entire village gathered and all the children got excited seeing them. Once they interacted with this young boy, it broke the ice between him and the children of the village who played with him for the first time. This gave him an inclusion opportunity.

We ran another eyewitness programme in 2018 where 20 people from Taiwan travelled to Sonipat. We generally take feedback from the group on the impact this has had on them. During one such interaction, when we were taking their thoughts on the programme, one woman started crying profusely, saying she realised the smallest things can have the biggest impact. She herself was not a good student at school and realised the challenges one faces with intellectual disability. It was an emotional moment for me as well and I just hugged her.

Another incident I vividly recall is in the year 2007 when we were organising the first event for Special Olympics Bharat on International Women’s Day at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi. I was working very closely with a girl called Ragini Sharma, who played basketball. Ragini was very shy and introverted. She was chosen to compere the event. We worked on the script and I trained her. I was so happy when she compered the event and read the entire script! This was the first time in India that a girl with a disability was given this opportunity. Today, Ragini is married and has a five-year-old child.

Globally, 2018 proved to be a big year for us at Special Bharat Olympics as the Special Olympics Youth Athletes programme saw close to 441,000 participants, a 43 per cent increase since 2017. India saw the largest growth with roughly 80,000 new Young Athletes, thanks to support from the IKEA Foundation.

My advice to parents is to please not hide the challenges of your child. Once you accept his or her requirements, doors of opportunities will open up as you start your journey together. Indulge them in activities to keep them fit, help them learn through activities. If a child is not responding well at school, there could be a milestone delay. Through our intervention, we can improve their social and motor skills. I would like to tell parents whose children have been diagnosed with an intellectual disability or whose children have special needs that you should never lose hope and never be defeated.