By: Rukhshana Media
Twenty-five-year-old director, filmmaker, and actress Atefa Hesari performed a street theater in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris on Thursday, October 10, to honor and commemorate the 40th day of the Kaaj educational center’s victims.
She performed at Human Rights Square in Paris with grimed face to display one of the Kaaj victims and with the hashtag “Stop Hazara Genocide” written in red on her long white dress.
“The venue was chosen for Marzia Mohammadi’s wish, a Kaaj incident victim, to see Eifel Tower one day, the white dress was a symbol of the innocence of the Kaaj girls,” Ms. Hesari tells Rukhshana Media. “And the hashtag was to raise awareness of #StopHazaraGenocide, and Hazaragi lullaby was to understand the pain of mothers after the deadly attack.”
She says that the main purpose of the street performance was to advocate for the victims of Kaaj educational center and also to support the campaign to “Stop the Hazara Genocide”.
Ms. Hesari says that in addition to the show, brochures about targeted attacks on Hazaras were distributed to answer questions from viewers.
“During the performance, I saw people who were crying, even though they were not Hazaras,” she says. “The audiences were not from Afghanistan, and they didn’t even understand the language.”
She says the performance had positive feedback. “We know that Afghans and Afghan girls are really brave,” she says many audiences told her after the show.
Ms. Hesari was a student of the Theater Department of the Faculty of Fine Arts of Kabul university who fled to France after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban on August 15 last year.
Currently, she studies at the National Conservatory of France.
Ms. Hesari has had many performances in Kabul and has written several plays. Two of her plays named “Safid Sar” and Awratina” have been made into movies in support of women’s rights in Kabul, which were released in Paris, France.
Referring to the recent arrests of women’s rights activists by the Taliban forces, she says the Taliban are afraid of women’s awareness and courage, and that’s why they are suppressing them in any way possible.
Around 40 days ago, a deadly suicide attack targeted Kaaj educational center in the Shia-Hazara neighborhood of west Kabul, which left nearly 60 students, mostly girls killed and more than 100 others wounded.
