Museum presents Voices on the Rise: Afghan Women Making the News

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Afghan_women.jpg” caption=”Voices on the Rise: Afghan Women Making the News features 42 photographs. Photo by Farzana Wahidy.”]A new exhibition of photojournalism at the McMaster Museum of Art provides a look into the lives of Afghan women journalists, producers, writers, photographers, filmmakers, human rights activists and parliamentarians.

These women's lives are not easy, juggling newly-found freedoms with traditional responsibilities at home and, all the while, struggling with the ghosts of their country's harrowing past and its ongoing conflicts.

The 42 photographs, produced by 18 individuals, includes the work of notable Canadian photographers Leslie Knott, Lana Slezic, Marija Dumancic and Elise Jacob.

The exhibit was curated by Khorshied Samad and Jane McElhone, both of whom have journalism backgrounds. Samad most recently worked as a television correspondent and Kabul Bureau Chief for Fox News Channel and, prior to that, for ABC News in Afghanistan and New York. She is involved in various projects that support Afghan women, including The ArteZan Designs Project and Artists for Afghanistan Foundation.

McElhone is a Canadian journalist, radio trainer and media development specialist. Based in London, she works for the Open Society Institute's Network Media Program supporting media around the world, including Afghanistan.

As a complement to this exhibition, there will be a panel discussion on Thursday, Sept. 27 at 1 p.m. Following a welcome by Ilene Busch-Vishniac, provost and vice-president (academic), and introductory statements by Susan Watt, associate dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, and Khorshied Samad, exhibition curator, two McMaster students will speak on Bridging East and West through the work of women, and integrating and enlarging social change in Afghanistan through McMaster discourses.