Llista de notícies

The exhibition has been presented in press conference with the speeches of the vice-principal for Culture and Equality of the Universitat de València, Antonio Ariño, and of Gervasio Sánchez. 

 

The exhibition brings together the portraits by the photograph and journalist Gervasio Sánchez, specialised in armed conflicts. The author of the texts is Mònica Bernabé, the only journalist in Spain that permanently informs from Afghanistan. The exhibition was inaugurated yesterday at 20:00h and previously, at 19:00h, the both authors of this project gave a conference at the Aula Magna of the building of La Nau. This exhibition includes guided visits (visites.guiades@uv.es) and during the days 29th and 30th September the guides will be Gervasio Sánchez and Mònica Bernabé. The registration is free and is carried out through the applicationhttp://gestiocultural.uv.es/visites/

 

The showing reveals that the violence against women in Afghanistan is an endemic and structural violence, a social problem worsen by the war, the existence of a generalised impunity in the country, the lack of education, the exploitation of the religion and the sexist laws.

 

The exhibition, formed by over 150 photographs is divided in six blocks. The main topics covered are the forced and child marriage; the flight; the drug addiction; the suicide; the legal advances and the reality; and the consequences of the impunity and war. The exhibition also shows counter-current women, women that despite their context have found the way of being heard in this hostility environment or of having presence in the public domain, which is very limited to the men in Afghanistan.

 

To carry out this project it has been necessary five years. The first photographs were taken in 2009 and the last ones in 2014. It has been necessary eight long journeys in Afghanistan by part of the photographer and the participation of Mònica Bernabé, who is almost eight years living in Afghanistan, as well as the support of the only Spanish entity that works in Afghanistan, ASDHA.

 

Antonio Ariño has emphasised “the committment that the Universitat de València shows with the photojournalism, a profession that is going through rough times but that is necessary in the democratic societies because, without it, we wouldn’t know testimonies as the ones in this exhibition.” A showing that speaks about “the patriarchal culture and about women that are forced to, for example, marry by an economic interchange, something that occurred in the England of the 17th century.” 

 

Gervasio Sánchez, who unfailingly has emphasised that without the journalist Mònica Bernabé this exhibition would have not seen the light, has defined the situation of Afghanistan this way: “In the last years I have carried out very hard projects on the mutilated by antipersonnel mines, the victims of the forced disappearances and the brutal consequences of the armed conflicts. I don’t get scared easily. But I must admit that in Afghanistan I have found the worst of the human being: its incompetence to feel empathy and compassion towards the victims and some violence and impunity degrees hard to experience in other countries.” 

 

And he has added that the problem of Afghanistan are not the laws, there is a legal framework that prohibits the violations to women, but they are subverted in the name of the tradition. He has explained that the photographs have been taken in places where there are no Talibans and that the problem of the Afghan women is much deeper than burqa. 

 

The project –indicates Mònica Bernabé in the catalog– helps to deepen on the causes of the violence against women ant the problems it generates, more than simplistic or superficial values judgements based on clichés, such as the use of the burka or the Islamic veil. The journalist emphasises that it also claims the importance of peace, justice and education because social changes are produced, and she speaks about the key role that play the new generations.

 

The authors

Gervasio Sánchez is journalist since 1984. His works are published in ‘Heraldo de Aragón’, ‘La Vanguardia’, and he collaborates with Cadena SER and the BBC. He is author of several photo books, among them ‘Kosovo’, ‘Niños de la guerra’ (‘Kids of the war’), ‘Sierra Leona. Guerra Paz’ (‘Sierra Leone. War peace’), ‘La caravana de la muerte. Las víctimas de Pinochet’ (‘The caravan of the death. The victims of Pinochet’), ‘Latidos del tiempo’ (‘Beats of the time’), ‘Desaparecidos/Víctimas del olvido’ (‘Missing people/Victims of the oblivion’), ‘Vidas minadas’ (‘Mined lives’) and ‘Sarajevo 1992-2008’ (published for Blume). He has been worthy of the awards Cirilo Rodríguez, International Press Club, Andalusian Culture, Journalism Human Rights, Liber Press, Javier Bueno and Joan Alsina from Casa América Cataluña; the Aragonese institutions granted him the Gold Medal of Santa Isabel of Portugal and the Medal for Professional Merit. In 2008 obtained the Ortega y Gasset Prize for the photograph Sofia Elface Fumo with her daughter and in 2009 the National Photography Prize. In April 2011 he received the Julio Anguita Parrado International Prize for “his independence, his journalistic excellence and for being able of maintaining a clear civic awareness and a permanent civic commitment.” The jury also wanted to “recognise on him the value of the work of the press photographers.” In May 2011 he received the Grand Cross Grade of the Order of the Civil Merit. He is a special envoy for the peace from UNESCO since 1998.

 

Mònica Bernabé is a Barcelona journalist who worked for years in the paper ‘El Punt’ as a topic responsible for immigration and gender. On her first journey to Afghanistan in 2000, she founded the Association for Human Rights in Afghanistan (ASDHA), NGO of which she is the president nowadays. Between 2000 and 2007 she travelled to Afghanistan each year, where she settled as a freelancer by the middle of the year 2007. She is the only Spanish journalist that works permanently in the country, and due to her work in the conflict area and her constant report on the violation of human rights and of women she have won several prizes, among which are very important the Julio Anguita Parrado Prize of Journalism (2010), the Proteus Prize in the field of culture and communication (2011) and the Cirilo Gómez for correspondents (2013). She publishes her articles in the paper ‘El Mundo’ and collaborates with Radio Nacional de España, Catalunya Ràdio and Canal Sur TV, among others.