 It's really wonderful to welcome everybody here today for a very special event. My name is Nancy Lindborg. I'm the president and CEO here at the U.S. Institute of Peace. As we just saw from the protest art during the Arab Spring to the use of drums during the South African Truth Commissions to spaces for memory and reflection in Columbia, art and music have long played a really powerful role in how people can heal, how people can push for peace, how people can reclaim broken identities. So this is exactly what Art Lords is doing powerfully in a country that has been racked with violent conflict for decades. And I couldn't be happier to welcome the co-founders who are here with us today, Omai Sharifi and Kabir Mokeimo, who have come all the way from Kabul to be with us. So thank you for joining us and thank you for the work that you do. I also want to give a special welcome to Ambassador Roya Rahmani as well as thanks to our colleagues in the public affairs section of the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, all of whom helped make today's very special event possible. And a warm welcome to everybody who's joining us online. I understand we have people from Columbia to Kabul who are watching us online. You can engage with us and with each other by using the hashtag Afghan peace. So as many of you know, U.S. Institute of Peace was founded 35 years ago by the U.S. Congress with this audacious vision that peace is possible. And this is the vision that has fueled us and our work in Afghanistan for nearly two decades where we work with partners to support a sustainable and inclusive peace at every level. We work with high-level consultations with top Afghan officials and international stakeholders to the grassroots peace-building efforts with women, youth and community leaders. So I was in Afghanistan just a couple of months ago where I heard really this rising call for peace from students, from local community actors to the peace marchers, the people's peace movement. I think there's a new cry, a new articulated thirst for peace. And on a wall outside the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul, I saw this beautiful mural on a wall depicting young students with their backpacks and the saying said, I am back because education prevails. So I later learned that actually this is one of the murals by art lords whose pieces have really captured the imagination of Afghanistan and they've drawn well-deserved international attention. And they are painting murals on these blast walls throughout Kabul, transforming these blast walls into a stand against corruption and inspiring Afghan people to push for peace. They also offer enduring reminders to all of us that as President Kennedy once said, after the dust of centuries has passed over our cities, we will be remembered not for victories or defeats in battles or in politics, but for our contribution to the human spirit. That's what art lords is doing. You are deeply contributing to the human spirit. I hope you've had a chance to see some of their murals before you came into the room. If not, after the panel discussion, there'll be a chance to really engage with the murals. We'll also hear music by Nati Kamidula and we'll conclude by inviting you to participate in one of the famous live mural paintings. So get ready to pick up the paintbrush. I'm really sorry that we were hoping to have a live performance from the remarkable young poet Marjan Naderi, but she has strep throat and is unable to join us. But if you haven't already, please check out her website or her YouTube channel. She's truly remarkable and we'll catch her another time. And with that, it is my great pleasure to welcome a dear friend and a wonderful partner of the Institute to come up and say a few words. The first woman ambassador from Afghanistan to the United States and a fierce champion for the people of Afghanistan. Please join me in welcoming the wonderful ambassador, Ambassador Roya Rachmani. Thank you so much. Very dear friend, Ms. Nancy Lenborg, the president of USIP. Dear colleagues, special guests, Mr. Humeed Sharifi and Mr. Mokamel. It's really wonderful to have you all here. Dear guests, good afternoon. Assalamu alaikum, may peace be upon you. Welcome. As always, it's a real pleasure to be able to share a few words here at the US Institute of Peace. A wonderful partner of Afghanistan and an institute that is really is trying to do great work and picking every necessary piece that is needed for peacemaking, peacebuilding and peace management. I want to thank you also for putting this wonderful event together and also I would like to extend thanks to the State Department for sponsoring the wonderful guests that are here today and we will hear later from them. It's such a pleasure today particularly to discuss this topic with you all because we will be sharing a side of Afghanistan culture that is too often left out of the current narrative. Afghanistan is a country that is steeped in a deep and rich cultural heritage from splendid archaeological artifacts and seven century oil paintings to 20th century poets and best selling novelists. We have always been a nation of virtual and verbal and visual storytellers. The exceptional talent of the Afghan people is something that has always brought me great comfort and hope. I believe that everything we do and achieve in this life starts as an exercise of imagination. For this reason, artists with their ability to imagine worlds beyond our own and to find beauty even in times of darkness are natural leaders of our journey towards peace. Since establishment in 2014, the old lords have painted over 1700 murals across Afghanistan in 21 provinces, turning tea walls, symbols of violence and pain and fear into beautiful works of art. In the process, they bring people together in a healing exercise that is inclusive, gentle and extremely powerful. I have seen firsthand how these murals have a ripple effect in society, helping to sustain hope and positive thinking as Afghan citizens do the hard work of rebuilding our society in the face of many challenges. I am often asked whether I think that peace in Afghanistan is possible. To the skeptics, I say, if a group of young artists can imagine turning blast walls into healing work of art, then I know we will have peace in Afghanistan. As Dr. Martin Luther King once said, peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek but a means by which we achieve that goal. The old lords are a beautiful example of peace as a practice. I am thrilled that their work is being shared here today, and I hope that you all find it as inspiring as I do. I hope you enjoy the rest of the program. Thank you. Thank you so much, Ambassador, and thank you all for coming. We're delighted to have art lords here. My name is Johnny Walsh. I'm a senior expert on Afghanistan here at the U.S. Institute of Peace. In another part of my life, I'm a cellist and a composer, and I've had a long-standing collaboration with the Afghan-American Rabab player, Khaisi Sahr, which I think put me in the narrow intersection among U.S. IP staff to have this conversation with you, and I'm thrilled. You've been praised a lot. I will just add that besides being extraordinary as artists, I mean, I think just the objective power of the work that you put out is really extraordinary, and I suspect I'm not the only one who gets a little catch in my breath and a lump in my throat when walking past some of the paintings or pictures of your murals in Kabul. They're so potent. But also, I think that art lords is literally the foremost example I can think of of art being used to practical effect, to effect positive social change in the world, and speaking as one who at least aspires to that in a totally separate idiom, we all talk about wanting to do that in the arts world. Very few people have as tangible a case as you all do for how you have affected positive change in a place that desperately needs it, and I find that really extraordinary. So let me shut up for a minute. Do you have a presentation to give us an overview of what art lords is and what's it about? And then maybe I'll interrogate you after that. Assalamu alaikum. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for coming. I'm really inspired to see a lot of people in this room. I didn't expect that many people. After hearing Excellency Yearwords and Nancy, I'm humbled and encouraged to share a personal story. I think it was the year 2000 when I had a small shop in the Shara now, it's a downtown area of Kabul. It was the Taliban era, and the most brave thing that I would do on those days would be in the morning when I would wake up, like at 4 a.m. my dad would send me to the mosque, and when I come back I would clean up the shop and then we would clean up the street in front of the shop as well. Those times it was a culture to clean up the streets as well. So I would sit in the shop, look around if there is no one, no turban or big beard, and then I had a tape recorder down under my feet. So I would press the button, turn it on, and then I would hear the stories from BBC Persian which was telling me stuff about Iran, Tajikistan and the stuff that's happening in the world. And I would be 12 and I was like so brave that I'm able to do this. And the moment that I would see somebody's crossing or coming to buy something from the shop, I would turn it off. So this was the extent of my bravery that I would, a window to the future, a window that I could see beyond what is possible. I was a 13 years old kid, starting to work from a couple of years back. And then my dad got to know that the only tape recorder is with me at the shop, so he stopped me from taking that to the shop, and I turned out to the books. So I was reading books about, and these books, I would buy it in kilos, like people who were leaving the country, they would put all the books on the street, and you would buy like five kijis of books for a very small amount of money. And then I would read about places like Washington, like New York, or like Paris. And then I would think with myself, is it possible that I would travel to these places one day because as a kid, you're selling cigarettes on the streets, it's beyond your imagination, and you've been in poverty all your life. How is that possible to think of traveling to places like that? But today, I'm so happy that I'm here. I visited all those places that I read in my books, and we started Art Lords, which I represent with a very good group of people, 53 of us right now in all of Afghanistan. I think this itself tells you a story, a story of change. How far we have come as a country? How far we have come as people who were forced in a violence and a war? That's not my war. So I was encouraged to share this personal story, and now I will share some slides very quickly, and then we will go to your interrogation. Why we call it Art Lords? Sample. You have always associated Afghanistan with the negative lords. Even the word Lord, which is a very beautiful name, it has been associated with corrupt lords, drug lords, war lords. We want it to be the positive lords, the constructive lords, the lords which brings empathy, love, kindness, because those lords, we have many of them in Afghanistan, and you only see the 1,000 most corrupt war lords. The rest, they're beautiful lords, and we want it to become the voice of the millions that they do not have a voice. They want to shout out their lungs that we don't want corruption, we don't want war, but they don't have that means to tell you. So we wanted this platform to be a place that they can raise their voices. Really it's a volunteer-based organization, wherever we go we invite people to come and paint with us, to join the efforts, and make sure that it continues as such all over the country. And this is a scene that you could see, wherever we go on any of the streets, all over Afghanistan, kids, elderly, soldiers, everybody joins in. They get a brush and start painting with us. They ask questions. They want to be part of it. They want to be engaged. They want to have a voice in whatever narrative that we are trying to say. So if it's corruption, if it's fighting for peace, if it's countering violent extremism, if it's women's rights, if it's for anything else, they just want to be part of it. They want to take ownership of it, and this is one of the ways that they can be part of these important initiatives. We started by a very famous pair of eyes, ICU. This is a campaign we had against corruption. We started five years ago. It says, I know you're stealing my money, but I will get you one day if I cannot do it today, but eventually I'll find a way to get you. And a Muslim country like Afghanistan being on the top 10 countries of most corrupt in the world, and those times we were either number one or number two, it was a big shame for me. Whenever I was traveling, people would look at me like, maybe this guy is also a corrupt person. So you always feel that kind of an urge to do something about it. And I think for us, this was the only way to get out and raise our voices. Role models, my hero. Our heroes have always been people with an AK-47, with a sword, and all of them are men. So we wanted to have heroes like ambassadors here. We wanted to have heroes who were municipality workers, who were teachers, a doctor, changing the narrative, giving people the opportunity to imagine something different. That your hero should not be the person who wins wars or something like that. So your hero could be somebody who is cleaning up the city of 6 million in Kabul or countering violent extremism. Our stories, the stories of Afghans, it's just becoming numbers. 50 people killed, 20 people killed, and this is every single day of my life. It is just numbers. But for us, it's stories. It's our friends. It's our family. The sister of someone, the husband of someone. We want to tell their stories. And we want to ask whoever is doing this, why are we killing? Who are you killing? Because these are the ordinary people of Afghanistan that are dying every single day. And it is depressing sometimes, but we have to really put up these faces. She is Kutzia, 21 years old, and she was killed on Darul Aman Road, which is the American university road when she was going to the university. So these are the kind of people who die every single day in Afghanistan. This is a bit of information about order loss, but this one, all the streets in Kabul are named after men again. So one night we decided to be very brave again. We went out there, we named all the streets after women. So for one night, Kabul city was a city of women. We liked it. It was fun. But I think I hope one day people realize this and give an opportunity to the beautiful half of Afghanistan that they are not involved in all these wars and killings and corruption, whatever is happening. This beautiful half of Afghanistan, the woman of Afghanistan, they are very brave. They are the most brave, honest people I have ever met. And I think they get an opportunity to serve their country. They will do it with the best of their abilities. Theater. For some of our people, if you would like this is in Herod province, they have never been to a theater show. They have never been to a gallery. They have never been to a museum. So when you take art to the people, they are mesmerized. The moment they see a theater show, they never blink. They just stay there focused and be there for one hour. They even don't move. So these are the kind of things we do on the streets of Afghanistan. Our music on the streets, it's so normal to see somebody basking in D.C. or New York. But it's very different if you're in Mandavi Kabul and then you have somebody playing the rubab and harmonium, so it's a bit different. But people love it. It becomes a platform where you can discuss anything you want to do. You can promote critical thinking to just being in that platform. Put a seed of doubt in their minds. Help them ask questions. Or we have some regional events. We invite people to at least get out, get some experiences. Art therapy, which is very important. We go to orphanages. We go to universities. We go to high schools to just give them a safe space. Give them a space where people could talk, people could get a brush, could get a canvas and start painting, whatever is in their minds. If they're going through any mental issues, they just have an opportunity to stop that, focus on painting, and find a way to heal. Artist residencies, which is happening, we invite artists to Kabul to stay with us, because I cannot get a visa for my artist to get out of Afghanistan. It was so difficult for me to come here. But we have given opportunity to anybody who is here or other parts of the world to come and be with us, work with us. Exhibitions, we have some here. We're trying to show a different face of Afghanistan, the reality of Afghanistan, because what media is portraying, that's also reality, but not the whole story. Our stories are different. This is also our story. Art law is a story which is started on the streets of Kabul. And like us, like art law, there's hundreds of groups all over the country. They're working so hard. They're not losing hope. They're not giving up. They're just trying to help their country. They're trying to help their communities, their villages, and we're just an example that's getting out of Afghanistan. The most important point that I wanted to talk about was about our recent work, which is called Let's Talk Afghanistan, because we wanted to promote empathy and tolerance. This project is mainly focused on getting people from, for example, Central Highlands of Afghanistan, from Bamiyan, take them to Helmand, which is in the southern part of Afghanistan, very different ethnic groups. Because of war and restrictions in transportation, they never had an opportunity to go and meet each other, to know that they have the same challenges, to know that they face the issues of terrorism, poverty, all of that. So this project is mainly focused to build peace, to think about issues of reintegration and reconciliation, and think about ways that we can find a solution in coexisting. Because what I believe and what we believe at Art Lords, we have accepted whoever the insurgent groups are, if you name it Taleb or if you name it Daesh or whatever it is. We have accepted them as a reality of Afghanistan. My point is that they have to accept me as a reality of Afghanistan. I have my gallery, I have my art café, we are painting on the walls. This is also a reality of Afghanistan. They have to accept this, and the freedoms that we have, the woman of Afghanistan, all of that. So it is just that idea of talking to each other and finding a way that we could coexist. And these are some of the images from Let's Talk Afghanistan. They go to the province, they dance together, they make music, they paint together, and they talk about their solutions as well. So thank you. This was my presentation. I appreciate your attention. Thank you very much. I got to see the PowerPoint in advance, and I think it's just my favorite final slide that I've ever seen. I'd love to ask a little more about the two of you individually, and then get to some of the specific work that you've done. From each of you, maybe Omade will start with you. You started off selling cookies and cigarettes in the streets of Kabul in very difficult circumstances. How did you, what was your journey as an artist, and how did you become the founder of an organization like this? I don't call myself an artist. We have invented a new word, it's called artivists. So when you have artists and activists together, so you become an artivist, because what we wanted to do was use art, especially the street art, as a means for social change, as a tool to change behaviors and attitudes, as a tool to promote critical thinking. So and all of this happened five years ago when Kabir and I, we met together and a couple of other friends, because it's not just us, it's a big team of people who have contributed to the establishment of art lords. So and it all, the sparkle came from all these big black blast walls, the ugly blast walls, because as a person who grew up in Kabul city, Kabul is a beautiful city, and then I was able to work on those streets, ride my bicycle, go to my high school, the roads were opened, the places that you could walk were open, and then suddenly everything changes. They block the streets, they block the pave ways, and they are taking your space, like it was my space, right? And they're taking away that space from me. We wanted to reclaim back that space. We wanted to get it back, because this is my space. And when we wanted to, because these walls are becoming my interior wall. And they, I don't like ugly interior walls. I want my interior walls to be colorful and beautiful. So I think that a sparkle came when we decided to bring down these walls. Kabir, what about yourself? What's your, what's your journey? My journey is very long, I won't go into it. But for me, because I grew up in Kabul, I left Kabul when I was 18, 19 years old, and then I came back to Afghanistan, like I've been in and out of Afghanistan since 1994, and finally in 2010 I came and settled in Kabul. For me, looking at Kabul, because I remember the beautiful Kabul, which was no walls, nothing, you know. So all of a sudden you see all these concrete walls mushrooming out. Every night that I sleep in the morning, you know, there's a new wall. So for me, it was really interesting, because I couldn't do anything about it. But at the same time, mentally, I felt under siege. I, the only thing that I could do is looking at these walls and thinking, you know, there must be a solution to this. So I, I imagine if I can put a message or a, or a image on it, that wall will disappear, and we actually tried that and it was, it worked. So finding a solution in the very heart of the problem itself, it was a really interesting experience for me and for the team. So had you, had you studied other mural artists around the world? There are other examples, including right here in DC, of people who have used that, that form of public art to make a powerful statement. Did you have inspiration from elsewhere? I think for me personally, Banksy was one of the people which I was really inspired by and the way he, he paints and the way he addresses an issue, it's very powerful. So that's been always an inspiration for me. Is there anything you can say about how art generally has been treated across the different eras that Afghanistan has experienced recently? And part of the premise of the question is that, I think we have an understanding here, rightly or wrongly, that, I mean, we understand art, music, visual art was suppressed under the Taliban and virtually everything fell apart in the period before that, and that then the Americans came in and a thousand flowers bloomed. And while there might be a grain of truth to that, the T-walls also came. And I'd be interested in what you, how you feel the art community in Kabul or around the country generally evolved through these tumultuous political changes that have happened in your lifetimes. It's, it's a really, it was a really interesting time for Afghanistan, like, especially during the fighting in Afghanistan. Since 1992 till 2001, art was completely operated from the scene of Afghanistan. And most of the artists that I knew inside Afghanistan, they were doing other stuff. And then people who got out of Afghanistan a lot of artists, you know, so they started, some of them, they started their practice, but some completely gave up on it. But since 2001, there are some great initiatives, some great artists who outside and inside Afghanistan, you know, they created initiatives, like one of ours, so that there is a girl, Shamsia, who's a great artist, you know, she's doing a lot of this art and other groups. But art has became through music. Music is a very important thing because we haven't had music for those 10 years or so, and visual art at the same time. Even now, when you travel throughout Afghanistan, you see, even now, you can see resistance in some areas, you know. It's been a very hard journey for art and artists through these years, but at the same time, there's, because there's a lot of subject matter in Afghanistan. So a lot of artists are thriving through being in music, being in visual art or performance art. They generally have been heard, yes, but at the same time, there's a lot of growth happening. I was interested in this question of what kind of resistance you've encountered over time, because you haven't shied away from it. You're certainly, as an organization, willing to take on power structures, you're willing to very frontally criticize the insurgents. And for that matter, pieces of music and pieces of visual art are not considered as benign and beautiful to every single person in the world as we might consider them. So tell us what kinds of reactions of that kind you've encountered and what you've done to kind of work through them. This image, the mural, it reminds me of a very good story, actually. So this one is, her name is Hamidah Barmaqi. She and her two kids and the husband was killed in an explosion in a grocery store. So this was not a target. She used to work at the Independent Human Rights Commission of Afghanistan. And she was just on her way to get some groceries and go back home. And the explosion killed the whole family. So we decided to do a mural for her on, I think, a couple of years ago. The explosion, which happened in that grocery store, was claimed by Hezboz Salami, which is the leader of the Hezboz Salami at that time, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. And then in 2016, Hekmatyar decided to join the peace process. So he came back in Kabul. He has a mansion now. He has, I think, 200 barricades. He has a lot of long caravan of cars and all of that. And his party claimed that this explosion was from them. So I decided to paint this mural in front of his house, right in front of his house. And a couple of hours, and then the gunman came. And they destroyed the mural. And people were calling me on the street, saying, somebody is destroying your mural because it's very rare that somebody destroys our murals because it's their own mural. They have worked on it. So they always take care of the murals all over the country. And this was a very interesting case. There's somebody destroying with guns. They're destroying a mural. And then it was Hekmatyar's people. So this is the kind of resistance, if you would name it, we face in Kabul. And there are other types as well, because sometimes when you paint faces of humans on these murals, it also, based on Sharia law, sometimes it has some interpretations, which is not allowed or allowed. So there's a lot of arguments going on on that. So we face some kind of pressure from conservatives and people in the provinces that why we are doing this. But we have consciously decided to do this thing, because if we don't do it, who will do it? And this is, I think, the way we wanted to help. We felt the responsibility. We felt the pain of going through all these sufferings in our country. And then at some moment of time, you just decide that you want to do something about it. And sometimes these gunmen, people like Hekmatyar or whatever insurgents they are, and they don't scare you as well, because look, I grew up and Kabil grew up in the same country that they grew up. The only difference is that they got a gun and we got a brush or a pen. So it doesn't mean that they can scare us. The only difference is that we had our books and we just tell them, man, we will stand up with our brushes, and you stand up with your guns and see who wins at the end. I just wanted to add something to this mural, because when we were painting, the people on the other side, they were just about 100 meters away from us. They brought us tea, and some of them came and painted with us, the bodyguards. But they didn't know what the midget was. And then it's finished. So that question focuses on the negative reaction. But at the same time, the reaction to what you've done has been extraordinarily positive. And really from the moment of that first painting outside the NDS of the eyes, which my very literary mom compares to in The Great Gatsby, the eyes of Dr. T.J. Echelberg, watching you always, they're much more positive in this case. You became celebrities very quickly. You had the BBC and Reuters doing stories on you. And I think you inspired a lot of tangible hope across the country. Tell us what that was like in the early days of art lords, as it became clear that there was a movement here. I think it brought a lot of responsibility, I would say, because we did not envision art lords to be this big. Because as people who had other jobs, responsibilities, families, we wanted to just contribute to some level of solving a problem in our city. And then I remember the day Kabeer and I, and there were other female colleagues. We were painting on a street, the famous India's one. And he has a long hair. I have a long hair. And we were painting. And the people came and they started speaking in English with us. And I spoke back in Pashto and in Dari. And they were surprised. They thought foreigners are doing this. We said, no, we are Afghans. We are from the same city. We want to do this for our own country. And they were like, oh, wow, this is something very new and something interesting. So from those first reactions, we realized that maybe we are onto something very new for the city. And then because the interest was so much that people, the cars would stop. Like the first mural we did, the whole street was blocked. Because everybody was looking at us. And why these people are painting the walls? Like people would shout, like, oh, can you paint our walls as well? So we would say, yes, please come in. If you come and talk to me, I'll paint your walls. So that was the first time we realized there is an opportunity. This is a platform where you can talk to people. So the person who was shouting at me that I have to paint his wall, he would come there. I would tell them, let's paint this mural first. Let's have a conversation. Let's know each other. And then I'll come and paint your wall as well. And then what happens? This guy paints for two hours. And he just forgets about painting his walls. He just focuses on the mural. And he asks questions about what is happening, what we can do, and all of that. And then at one point of time, there was so much demand and an interest that people would bring us dossiers of corruption cases on the streets. They would tell us, can you please solve this? Can you help us? They thought we are the cigar, the anti-corruption body of Afghanistan. We are doing these murals. So this is the time that we, I think, a unique time. 2014 was the time it was a doomsday for us. Everybody was leaving. They thought Americans were leaving. The 1989 time when the Soviets left, that wasn't the back of the minds of the people. And everybody was scared. Everybody was leaving the country. There was no investments. And at that time, we came in and we said, OK, let's do something. So in the midst of all this crisis and chaos, we had an opportunity to turn these ugly blast walls into canvases. And I think it went well for us and also for the people of Afghanistan as well. So I think you're still most famous for the murals that you've done and continue to do, but you've expanded well beyond that over the years. I'd say some of your projects, if we take the word artivist, some of them are heavily towards the activist part, like the Let's Talk Afghanistan initiative with local dialogues among people who wouldn't otherwise speak to each other, or even the renamed streets as a point about women being the total failure to recognize women's contributions in how we name our public spaces. Tell us about that evolution. And maybe it segues into where art lords is going, but how do you think about what kinds of other activism to expand into? So I think when you're in Afghanistan, and then you realize that there's so much that you can do, because everywhere you look, there's an opportunity to do something. The challenges are huge. We have a lot of problems. It's a poor country. Poverty is the big elephant in the room. Insurgency, the radicalization, and all of that. So you really fell overwhelmed. And you feel sort of if you feel responsible to do something. That's why that encourages us. That inspired us to really push forward, move forward. What else we can do? And when we started this artivism movement, most of the artists, as Kabir was mentioning, if you're an artist all over the world, you're poor. And if you're in Afghanistan the first day, you go to the university. The teacher says, if you're here to make some money, then leave my class, because you will be poor all your life. So we just decided maybe if we can expand, we will have an opportunity to help the most vulnerable sector of the society, which are the artists. So that happened. And then we were looking into ways that we can, for example, let's talk campaign or other movements, which we have, to find solutions, maybe, for whatever problems that we have. Some of them work. Some of them doesn't work. The only thing that we never shy away is from trying, testing. So we are out there. And whenever we have an idea, we try it. And with the hope that it will do not harm the community. It will not harm the people, but provides a solution and an alternative way of thinking for some of our problems. I think one of the other things I would mention, kind of adopting art. It's very multiple, so that you can actually adopt it into different campaigns and everything. It doesn't have an intrusive nature. So it's very soft. And people accept it more. So it can be adopted into other lines. Interesting. Some artists go for the polar opposite of that, but I think you make more of an impact by making a statement that people are ready to receive and can embrace. I'll ask one more, and then I'll go to the audience. And then, trust me, the audience participation here is only just beginning. We have a whole other model after this that you'll enjoy. But maybe this bridges the USIP part of this conversation. Over the last year, two issues have totally dominated the political conversation in Afghanistan. There's peace, and there's the election. You can take either of those, or both. But tell us how those have been reflected in the work that you've done across all of these different disciplines. Sometimes I really forget that we had an election, and we didn't have the results yet. It's four months. It's embarrassing. But I went out and I voted with a lot of hope. Hopefully the results will come soon. To be honest, when I was coming back on Friday, nobody was talking about elections anymore. People have totally forgotten about elections. And we expect that the result will come out soon, and then we will have a new government. That has caused a lot of confusion among the people. So hopefully that will be sorted out soon. The other issue, which is peace. So what is peace? Because I don't know peace. I was grown up in the war. Peace for us in Afghanistan, for most of us, we really don't know what this word peace means. Is it ceasefire, maybe? Because whatever we are calling about peace, I think it's a ceasefire. Because the rest, we don't know. We don't understand. So that process, which is started in Doha and the American government talking with the Taliban, it has caused a lot of fear among the people. Because we paid a lot of costs for war. What is the cost of peace? Because we don't want something which is decided in Doha could be implemented in Afghanistan. We don't want another formula thought and then baked outside the country, and then it's implemented on the people of Afghanistan. So that fear is still there among the people. The people of Afghanistan, the ordinary citizens of Afghanistan, which we talked to through the Let's Talk campaign, this concept was specifically designed to really bring the people together and ask them questions about what peace means to you and then encourage them to talk to each other. So they have their own definitions of peace. They have their own definitions and ways of coming to a peace. The only thing that they know right now is that they are fed up of war. They wanna take a break from this. It has been a long time, it is an imposed war, it's not my war, it's not their war. They wanna break to this, but they want to also know what prices they want to pay. I wanna know, will I be able to paint? Will I be able to have these music sessions on the streets? These are all the questions which is up to the people of Afghanistan to decide. And I think this Doha talks has sparked a lot of conversation among the people. A lot of people have mobilized. Some of these warlords and the old people and nothing against the old people here, but the old people in my country, especially the warlords, they have mobilized to maybe get a piece of pie again, but the ordinary, the young generation of Afghanistan, they have mobilized to put up their demands, to put up their ask to tell the whole world they are also reality of Afghanistan and these are their demands and these are their red lines. Maybe we could take some questions from the audience. Sir, excuse me, we will have a microphone roving back and forth. Just please stand up and introduce yourself. And I should note that short questions are the best questions. Definitely, much double with Free Muslim Center for De-radicalization. And I thank you guys. Like Arab Spring where it ignited in one country and it mass produced. Are you planning to reach out to artists in different countries in conflict and give them the idea and help them because you have the mechanism? Are you planning to do that? Thank you. Thank you. Our new project is called Wartist. Artist with a W. It's focused on the artists in the front lines. What we did is we went to at least 12 countries and we had training sessions like this, how you can use art, especially street art, as a tool for social change. And we are focused now to really whatever we have, experiences, we can share it with other people. And especially artists in Syria, in Libya, in Yemen, Pakistan and other places where they're really fighting for their lives. We're trying to find some ways to help them out by sharing our information, by giving them opportunities to exhibit their work or find a way to highlight their work. Sarah, in the back. Hi, Ron. Thank you. Welcome both of you. I'm a researcher with the Institute of Vault Politics, National Security. Two questions. First, your fight was not only against the Taliban and insurgents group, but also against the government, the corruption and internal, how that was your experience. And the second question is, let's say we have a conversation with the Taliban. Do you see your role as art lords also to create that bridge for forgiveness and creating a podium to connect the Taliban with the community back? Thank you. Our fight is still with the government because there's so many areas that they can improve. In terms of fighting corruption, in terms of providing services, and there's a long list of things that the government could do well. We are walking a fine line with them. There are areas that we collaborate very well. There are areas that we stand up against them. There are times that I get calls from very important senior people that tell me don't take names. So that fight is going on. And for us, we want to be a movement of accountability. We want to press for transparency. That's the only aim art lords has. And not just us, but other groups as well. So this is the whole idea, and it will continue. There are areas that our agendas match, and we will support the government, whatever we have. When it comes to the issues of our national security and defense forces, we have been there on the front lines painting and giving them moral. But when it comes to corruption, when it comes to service delivery, we have been standing astrict and telling them that this is not OK. And we'll still continue. With the Taliban, it's a bit tricky, because there has been times that we were able to paint in the areas that the Taliban control. So they haven't said anything. They have let us come in to paint, because sometimes they say that they are also against corruption, so they have invited us to paint in those areas. But there are times that you are also titled an infidel, because you're painting a face of a woman or a face of a person on a wall. So we have to really figure it out, but the whole idea with the Let's Talk campaign, we aim that we create that bridge. Because if they are coming back to their communities, if somebody is coming getting down from the mountain or getting down from his motorcycle with the AK-47, coming back to the village, so there has to be a way that they could reintegrate with the society. A way that they could heal as well, because they have been through a lot of trauma, like all of us in Afghanistan. So we want to find a way, maybe one of the ways, I'm sure there's a lot of experts and organizations, one of the ways could be through art, through music, through painting, through helping them come back to the normal society. Why don't we take three together in the interest of time? Could we go, ma'am and ma'am and sir, in that order? My name is Tahira Sherzai. I am a board member at the Afghan Academy, and you can call me a social activist. I really like what you're doing, it's really interesting. But as you said, poverty is a big question in Afghanistan, has been and it still is. Lots of people are out of jobs. My first question is, how do you support yourselves? How do you support all this thing? How do you get all the supplies? And my second question is, that you have music in different areas. Aren't you afraid of the security that you collect a lot of people in one area if something happens? How would you feel? You have many other questions, but that's enough. Please. My name is Manjula Kumar. I'm president of an organization, Global Performing Arts, and I've worked at the Smithsonian for about 30 years, where we had this wonderful exhibition, the Turquoise Mountain. I think a lot of Washingtonians were able to enjoy and learn much more about Afghanistan. I thank USIP for doing this, so that we're able to learn about Afghanistan that is not available to us through the media, I know. So my question to Pronged, you just mentioned about recognition, awareness from the international communities. Is that happening? How much could there be more? And are you able to bring out, outside, and available to people across the world? Or is it, whether it's paintings or music, we've had some at the Kennedy Center and some, but I'm just wondering how difficult, and what were the avenues? There's actually a lot there, so why don't I let those ones go, and then we'll go to you, sir, after that. I will be lying if I don't say I'm not scared. I'm scared every single day. I'm scared when I'm getting out of my house, because every day I feel that an explosion might happen, and I will not go back alive. That is the level of insecurity that I feel, and I have felt it all my life. So Kabir will say more about that. It is the reality of Afghanistan. It could happen to anyone, any place, in any part of the country. So there is a saying in Afghanistan, Tawakal Bahuda, so we have Tawakal Bahuda, so we go out there just like this, not with a suit and tie, this is very unusual for me, but just out there on the streets and trying to paint, and trying to encourage people to paint with us, with the hope that nothing will happen, but I am also aware that it might happen at any moment. Second about finances, we have a gallery, we do sell art, which is helping us a lot with some of our resources. We have an art cafe, which is called Dribbel, so it's a very unique idea for our part of the world. We have art sessions in that art cafe, we sell art as well, and we have some good coffee. If you're in Kabul, I encourage you to come to our Dribbel Art Cafe. At the same time, we do some paid partnerships, and those are, for example, polio is only in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and we're working with UNICEF to eradicate polio from Afghanistan, and that is through awareness, through murals, through radio pieces, through animation, and in short movies. So these are some of the ways that we could support ourselves. Just the first question about the security, we are, when we are on the street, we start painting and people come and join. One of the things that we always take into consideration is security, but nothing around Kabul there's no way which is secure. And what terrorism does, the first thing it always does, it actually takes that space that you can imagine something. So that's what we try our best to provide that space for people to at least reflect and express something. The security is a big issue, and when we are in the forefront, so as Omid said, we fear it every day. This is something that we can't do much about, so it's always, we are in the forefront and people come and join, and we do things together. And what else? Apart from Afghanistan to outside. It's a very hard thing to actually, for a lot of our artists to get a visa to get outside of Afghanistan. So on behalf of 53 artists today, we are here to showcase their work. It's always a big problem. So, and we always have problems with that. We have a free market, but not free people. So that's, yeah. Maybe we could do one more round, and then move on to part two of this event, which you're gonna like. Sir, and anyone else? Bam, and sir. Yeah, my name is Auguste Nacho. I'm with the tragedy assistance program for survivors. My question for the first part is similar to what she asked about finance and security, but another part I wanna ask is, you told us about your 13-year-old self, and then now here you are. I'm a little bit interested in, in between that, how did you see yourself doing these kind of things? Because some people in some corners of the world they're interested in doing this kind of a thing, because we all know the relationship between art and peace and all those things. And they're like, did you just blow up all of a sudden and you have 53 artists doing this thing with you? So I'm interested in that. And lastly, I'm also asking about the impact, like the long-term impact of your work, apart from the prima facie satisfaction, or the people coming in to join and paint with you, how far are your works changing things on government policy, or even the way people do things day by day? Very importantly, the night you change all the street names to women, did it make any impact on the government to at least name some streets for women? So I'm interested in those. Salam, Kaby, John, Amejon, Wido. I run a youth organization here in Washington, DC around social justice and global education. So welcome to DC. And I'm also, of course, African-American. My question to you is a little bit more personal in the sense that you talked a bit, just I think Amejon, you said something about keeping inspiration, but how do you keep your mental health and positivity and in general your day-to-day life in terms of those of us who've been outside of Afghanistan for so long. It's even hard to look at images, listen to the news. And the only Twitter account that I can follow is yours just to keep a little bit of inspiration here. So we've become a little bit not immune, but I've sort of turned off to look at the things that Afghans are facing every day in Afghanistan. How do you keep positive? Just simply by everything that you see day-to-day. And sir. Good afternoon, my name is Wally Sherzai and I'm so glad that finally I cornered Amejon and Farijon because I just came two years ago roughly from Kabul and I was looking for you guys because I was seeing these arts. And believe it or not, I have so many pictures of them but I didn't know who are doing these things. So I think I'll cut you once some of your people were doing that and I was supposed to stop and I wasn't allowed to stop on the street and ask questions but so lucky to find you here and find a corner here. It doesn't happen often. But yeah, I guess those walls that you're mentioning blast wall, they were called Alaska barriers by very bad name. And it used to be Jersey barriers, 44 inches and then started rising up to two meters now, I think I don't know, five, six meters. And I shared the pain that you're going through that I was raising Kabul and beautiful Kabul you could go anywhere. And every one of them is almost on my chest, not really on the street because you're blocking the sidewalks, you're putting innocent people back in the street to traffic and you're taking blocking streets with these things. And I actually talked to the municipal of Kabul, two of them, and I give them designs and instead of putting this, why don't you make your walls thick, as thick as you want it. I give them a design of a beautiful stone wall that you can build it inside your property, not on the street on the sidewalk because it's not yours, it's public. So thank you very much for the work and I don't have any question. The only question I have is show me how you do it. Thank you. All right, I will start from the last part. I'm so glad to meet you. And the issue you mentioned, for as it's like the people who are behind these walls, now it's eight meters tall. It covers everything. And these people, they are government officials, they are international community members and even warlords and drug lords and private sector members now. It has become a prestige. So if you have a lot of money, the only show office to block a road. Just imagine that kind of stability that those people have. They are safe behind these walls and then they're getting out, they have armored cars. There's a complete disconnect with the ordinary citizens of Afghanistan. They are safe in there. If even explosions happen, their cars even does not scratch. So that is the reality of my country at this moment and that is my fight. This is our fight that we just get to them and at least try to not let them sleep very well in the night. I hope if they have that conscious, maybe if they look at one of these murals and they could go at home and then do not sleep well. So that is the least we can do. Vidojon, on the issue of the mental health, do I look sane to you? It's not. We went through a lot of trauma and violence all my life and all of us. There's almost zero health for mental health. I think more than half of the country goes through a lot of troubles. One of the ways for us is to paint, to block everything, to have a safe space and then go there. We dance a lot. My support system is Kabir. I went through very bad mental health through very bad depression a year ago when he was there for me. But that is just, I was lucky enough to have a support system, to have my family or my friends around me or to have to paint sometimes. But there's a lot of people who doesn't have anything. And last night I was speaking somewhere and we were encouraging people that if you have any ways that you can contribute to the mental health being of people out there in Afghanistan, please do, because we need centers. We need doctors. We need people to come there and help us out. On that point and on the issue of my friend on the impact assessment, we haven't done an impact assessment. We really don't know what has our work done. But the only, what we wanted to do was to inspire people. We wanted to inspire groups in every village in every community to do something. Not wait for the government. Not wait for anybody. Just get out. Do something, because the people are becoming very lazy. The last 20 years we were paid for the work that we were doing it for free. In our culture, there's a lot of volunteerism. There's histories of it. Hundred years of volunteerism. Pacha Khan, which is the red shirt movement. A lot of people were doing things for free. And it was your obligation. It was your duty. But then 20 years I've changed the people a lot. They have become very lazy. Our idea was to go out there and help them to inspire them to do something on their own. And we told them, look, from these blast walls we were able to create some movement which is recognized in Afghanistan and outside. My story from 13 to 33, longest story man. I can talk to you some of it when we are seeing the paintings. I think that was it. Anything else? No? All right. So now we are going to... Oh, forgive me. Please. I was just thinking, you know, like in Afghanistan it's not what I've done. All hopelessness and despair. There's some beautiful stuff happening every day. Like personally, it keeps me going, you know? I believe in the young spirit of Afghans. And also there's a lot of great initiative by young Afghans. So when you look at social media you may get disappointed but when you're on the street you can see what's happening. So there's cafes coming up, you know, young people are sitting around sipping coffee, discussing everything. There are cinemas opening up. In Polisar, the area that I live, kids and families, they go to cinema. The first cinema, it opened up to the public. Film clubs, you know, there's a restaurant which is actually library restaurants so that you can buy books or read books. There's a lot of positive stuff happening. And that's why one of the things that we need to actually take into consideration that whatever the Doha talks are up here is about, you know, like a lot of young Afghans they won't accept the recipe which is cooked outside of Afghanistan for Afghan problems. So there's a lot of hope and a lot of young energy. And it keeps me personally, it keeps me going. Maybe I'm mental but it's, yeah. Yeah, everyone blames me that I'm crazy to have such high hopes for Afghans but I really do. And I see it every day. Thank you so much. Would you, would one of you like to explain what we're going to do next? So we go outside. There's the exhibition. We will be very happy, Kabir and I, to explain any of the artworks. And also we have another room which is just on the left. We have a live mural painting. It's a very small canvas compared to what we do in Kabul but just to give you an idea of what is happening and how we do our work. So you're most welcome to come talk to us, ask questions because there's a lot of symbols beneath each artwork and then paint with us. So thank you so much for coming. Thank you.