Kashmir's women artisans get long-overdue recognition through murals

While Kashmir Valley is counted among the most creative regions of the world,women artisans from the valley have not been appreciated as much as their male counterparts. For the first time, a group of women hasdecided to publicly recognise the female artisans of the Kashmir Valley.

A group called 'Fearless Collective' has collaborated with the local artist Zoya Khan, an architect by profession, to lead this project in the Kashmir Valley. Zoya has started painting a four-storey building in the heart of Srinagar to celebrate and appreciate the women artisans of the Kashmir Valley. The mural being made by these artists is of the female artisans who work with crafts like namda, sozni, pashmina, silk and copperware.

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''It's for the first time in Kashmir Valley that women artisans are being appreciated. As you can see, the mural has Kashmiri women artisans making namda, copperware and sozni embroidery and pashmina. Our motive was to send across a message by making this mural on a four-storey building so that people know about the history of our crafts and also focus on Kashmiri craft getting more recognition, '' said Zoya Khan, architect and artisan.

The group has worked across various countries in the world, and it is for the first time that it is working in the Kashmir Valley.Zoya is training other local artists who willbe taking forward this project. The group of these women say that it's very important to represent women karigars (artisans) of Kashmir by this art intervention in a public space. The female artisans in the valley have never been at the forefront and been a silent force for making sure the craft survives.

''The work of the fearless collective is to turn up public spaces across the world and work with the local communities to create these huge monuments. While we have worked in over 15 countries and painted over 50 walls with 100's of different community members including indigenous communities in Brazil, refugees in Beirut, domestic workers from Syria and this is of course the first time ever that we have worked in Kashmir and we are working with a Kashmiri artist Zoya khan who is leading this project,'' said Shilo Shiv Sulaiman, founder, Fearless Collective.

"We are working with the women artisans of Kashmir, and we have given them the dignity as the creators of Kashmir. Very often we think about the outstanding craft and the hands that are making them. We wanted to honour those hands,'' she added.

These women in the future want to create many such places where the work of the women artisans of the Kashmir Valley can be put out-front for the public to see.

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