An artistic exchange between Afghan and Australian women, The Handkerchief Project, has been acquired by the Australian War Memorial.
More than 40 mixed media handkerchiefs were sent to Afghan women by Australian women during the Afghanistan War. On each handkerchief an Afghan woman sewed her response. The handkerchiefs will be taken into the ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Collection to represent the lives of women during the war.
Afghanisan participant, Mursal Rahimi, said the teamwork between the Australian and Afghan women was important.
“It means a lot to me and lots of other people in my country. It was amazing that women from two different countries with very different levels of education, with different languages, and very different cultures worked together very closely and provided such wonderful artworks, ” Rahimi said.
Project founder Gali Weiss said: “The objective of the project was to support women in Afghanistan in their quest to acquire and use literacy skills.
“As Australian women living in privileged circumstances, in a country whose military was involved in Afghanistan, we felt a responsibility to connect with Afghan women living in circumstances of war and immense hardships.”
