Daily Times

For days Hamida Barmaki’s smiling face stared out over traffic in Kabul, painted in a towering mural near the home of the warlord blamed for her death, until it was mysteriously covered over in white.

The short-lived image on a concrete blast wall marked the beginning of a provocative campaign by social activist group ArtLords, whose artists are calling out Afghanistan’s most powerful by depicting people killed by warlords in giant murals in public places.

They have been threatened on social media, branded infidels and told by gunmen and mullahs to stop painting — but are unrepentant.

“This was a warning shot to everyone that we will not let you sleep at night, we will come after you, we will paint in front of your homes,” ArtLords co-founder and president Omaid Sharifi told AFP at his studio in the Afghan capital.

Rather than seek justice for the countless victims — something that is not realistic given the huge number of them and the country’s weak judicial system — the group hopes to pressure warlords to acknowledge their past actions and apologise, said Sharifi, 31.

Published in Daily Times, March 22^th 2018.