BEACON GALLERY
ON DISPLAY FEBRUARY 28 – MAY 1 2023
CUNY School of Law, 2 Court Square West Long Island City
The Institute for Gender, Law and Transformative Peace Initiative (the Institute) and the Human Rights & Gender Justice Clinic (HRGJ) bring a new installation of the Faces of Resilience series highlighting human rights defenders to the Beacon Gallery this spring.
Faces of Resilience: Portraits of Afghan Women Human Rights Defenders is the third exhibition of portraits taken among the Institute’s and HRGJ’s international partners, in continuation of the LGBTQI and Afro-Colombian Human Rights Defenders exhibitions.
“Jamila” by Maureen Drennan
The Afghan women in this series have publicly advocated, often at great personal risk, for women and girls’ human rights, for peace, and for a more just society. Collectively, their activism spans from before the first Taliban regime in the 1990s, through the 20-year U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, to the second Taliban takeover in August 2021, as well as its aftermath. Nearly all of the women had to flee to protect their lives after August 2021, and many are now stuck in uncertainty, unable to work, and uncertain of their future. Despite this, they continue to advocate for Afghan women and girls’ rights and for their meaningful inclusion in national and international decision-making spaces regarding solutions to the humanitarian and human rights crisis in Afghanistan.
The portraits are the work of photographer Maureen Drennan, born and raised in New York City and an Associate Professor at CUNY’s LaGuardia Community College. Her work has been included in exhibitions at the National Portrait Gallery, Aperture, and the Newspace Center for Photography, amongst others. Her images have been featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Atlantic, Photograph Magazine, and more.
Plans for events related to the exhibition will be announced in the weeks ahead.