Women are incredible

Shamsia, the Blue Burqa Graffiti Artist

An image of Shamsia's work

Working with incredible women of today and thinking about awe inspiring women of the past has made me reflect more and more on the powerful women I have had the good fortune to meet on my travels around the globe.  I came across this post from a previous diary I kept during a trip to Afghanistan - a place where women are still fighting bravely to be seen and heard.  The idea that anyone would hold a Graffiti Festival in Kabul, let alone a young female practicing artist, is incredulous.  It speaks of the courage, defiance and optimism of women everywhere.  It made me smile to think of our own banner which I feel contains the perfect balance of positivity and punk!

It’s really important to point out that it’s not all doom and gloom in Kabul and that loads of people are doing everything they can to try and put the city back together, despite the constant interference of foreign troops and unhelpful governments.
There are lots of bright young artists and musicians and we were lucky enough to be able to attend the opening of this Graffiti Festival held by a young woman called Shamsia who is the ‘Blue Burqa’ Graffiti Artist.
One of the chaps made a beautiful speech in English about the fact that they are trying to paint the city back to beautiful.  And he added that when you drop a drop of paint into water it changes the water, and the paint from the festival would help to change the city.