In Conversation with Shamsia Hassani: Art and Visibility, International Women’s Day
In 2010, Shamsia Hassani began painting on the streets of Kabul. At the time, the act carried both artistic ambition and personal risk. Public walls in Afghanistan’s capital rarely saw the presence of women claiming space through image and voice. With spray paint and conviction, Shamsia Hassani introduced her new visual language into the landscape.
Born in Tehran to Afghan parents and later returning to Kabul to study fine arts at Kabul University, where she would eventually teach, Shamsia Hassani’s path has been shaped by education, resilience and the quiet determination to create even when circumstances resist it. Her figures soon became unmistakable. Women with closed eyes, without mouths, occupying walls at monumental scale. They appear calm, inward and composed, yet their presence transforms the atmosphere of a city.
Over time, these women have travelled far beyond Kabul, appearing across continents while remaining rooted in the experiences that first shaped them. Through murals, paintings and her series Dreaming Graffiti, Shamsia Hassani continues to speak about visibility, resilience and the inner life of women whose voices are silenced.
For International Women’s Day, under the theme Give To Gain, we spoke with Shamsia Hassani about her early murals in Kabul, the symbolic language of her work, and her enduring commitment to ensuring that Afghan women remain seen, remembered and heard.
GraffitiStreet
You began painting on Kabul's streets in 2010, at a time when few women occupied public space in this way, and it carried real risk. What first drew you to the wall as your canvas, and what did it feel like to claim that space?
Shamsia Hassani
I wanted to bring art to the streets by painting on the city walls, to create a new beginning and introduce art to people in war torn areas. Sometimes, a work of art needs to be seen many times to be remembered. Street art gives people the opportunity to see more, learn more, and become curious. A mural cannot go unnoticed or be easily forgotten because of its large size. To be truly effective, a work of art must become part of people’s daily lives, especially for those who are not familiar with art, particularly contemporary art. My works were often not easy for street audiences to understand because of my symbolic style, and the presence of layered content made the meaning more complex. Sometimes, it sparked curiosity in viewers; other times, they simply ignored it.
GraffitiStreet
Looking back at those early murals, what do you feel you were offering to the city through your figures?
Shamsia Hassani
My paintings have a character, just like characters that play roles in films, my paintings’ character also plays different roles. This character plays the role of a human being, but since I am a woman, I can understand women better, and also since women have more limits (restrictions) than men in our society, I chose my character to be a woman. My first works had a woman in a Blue Burqa, who had dynamic shapes and looked stronger than the women in the society. I believed that this could show women stronger. Later I removed the burqa and showed under the burqa, A woman with shut eyes and no mouth, with a deformed musical instrument which gives her power and confidence to talk and play her voice powerfully.
GraffitiStreet
Since 2021, over two million Afghan girls have been denied access to secondary school and university. As someone whose own path was formed through education, how do you hold that reality today? How does it shape what you feel compelled to create?
Shamsia Hassani
Girls of the new generation who represent our country, are not allowed to study. With their ideals and dreams, they are sinking deeper each day into the swamp created by the Taliban. I created many artworks to talk about this hard situation, as an artist unfortunately I couldn’t bring big changes, the only thing I can do is to be their voice through my art and I would say this is the only power that I have “sharing the voice of Afghan girls to the World”. The Taliban have not only shut the doors of education on girls, but are systematically erasing women from the society. What makes this tragedy even more painful is how ordinary it has become.
The suffering of Afghan women is slowly turning into background noise, repeated so often that it no longer provokes outrage.
GraffitiStreet
When painting in the streets became too dangerous, you developed Dreaming Graffiti. What were you offering to yourself and to others through that shift in practice?
Shamsia Hassani
When the security in Kabul was getting worse day by day and I was not able to stay in public areas like before. I decided to photograph my favourite walls in the city for a while and later I paint on the pictures’ walls. I was thinking maybe someday I can paint them on the same walls in real. Whenever I looked at the photos with my works on, I thought that I have done graffiti on the actual location and not on the painting, it was just a dream, my dream to paint on the walls of my city, and that is why I called it “Dreaming Graffiti.” So it was a way I could show what I am dreaming, visualising my dreams.
GraffitiStreet
Your women often have closed eyes and, no visible mouth, yet they feel deeply present and unmistakably powerful. How did this visual language evolve, and what does it allow you to express about inner strength, voice, and presence beyond words?
Shamsia Hassani
Many people look for mouth and open eyes in my character, this is not a realistic art style, in my symbolic style everything is possible, even to show all the emotions and feelings through two closed eyes… I paint different feelings and emotions with only two closed eyes. With this symbolic face, she doesn’t look like any specific person, and this allows people to feel themselves in the character, instead of her. Also, with closed eyes we can feel better, we can see through ourselves, and we can dream and imagine better.
GraffitiStreet
Your murals now appear at monumental scale across cities and cultures worldwide. What does it feel like to see your women occupy public space so powerfully, and how has this global visibility expanded what you are able to express and amplify through your work?
Shamsia Hassani
My mural in different city walls remind Afghan women to the people of that city and to the world through social media. They become part of people’s daily lives, one of the ways they will not be forgotten, and stay in people’s mind forever. And leaving a foot print of mine as an Afghan woman in every city with my art. To show that I am a girl from the same society and I became an artist through war and social/political unrest.
GraffitiStreet
As the world moves toward gender equality by 2030, when you imagine a truly equal future, what would no longer need to exist in your imagery, and what would finally be free to appear?
Shamsia Hassani
Unfortunately, I can’t think about future due to the life I have been through.
GraffitiStreet
Looking ahead, what are you ready to give next through your art, and what kind of world do you hope that offering helps shape?
Shamsia Hassani
I know that art can’t bring rapid changes, but indirectly it effects the society. Art changes people’s minds and people change the society. With every new art piece, I remind the world of Afghan women, and not let the world forget people who live in conflict around the globe. I keep painting, hoping that even if I can bring just one percent of change, or a few seconds of hope and empathy to those who need it, it will be worth it.
GraffitiStreet
For young girls who feel unseen or limited by their circumstances, what message would you want to share this International Women's Day and beyond?
Shamsia Hassani
I feel so weak to share a message with the girls who stayed so strong and hopeful during these five years. I just want them to not lose hope and believe that there is light after darkness. It’s been years that I am painting for them and think of them every single day. They are all in my artworks with their hopes, wishes and dreams. They are the heroes and the main characters of my artworks.
Listening to Shamsia Hassani speak about her work reveals that the true power of her murals lies not only in their scale but in the persistence of the ideas they carry. The women she paints inhabit walls across the world with a quiet composure that invites contemplation, embodying an interior strength that resonates far beyond the surfaces on which they appear. Through them, Shamsia Hassani continues to insist on visibility for those whose lives unfold within conflict, restriction and uncertainty, reminding us that absence from public life does not erase presence, dignity or imagination.
While she speaks with humility about the limits of what art can change, her practice demonstrates the subtle yet profound influence creative expression can have on collective awareness. Each mural becomes part of the everyday landscape of a city, entering the rhythm of daily life and reminding those who encounter it of stories that might otherwise fade into silence.
In continuing to paint, Shamsia Hassani offers something enduring to the world: a commitment to memory, to empathy and to the belief that even the smallest shift in understanding can contribute to a larger transformation in how societies see and value the lives of all women.
Image courtesy Shamsia Hassani
Explore a selection of Shamsia Hassani’s artworks here.