Gervasio Sanchez and Monica Bernabé will perform guided tours to these exhibition on 29 and 30 September. If you want to attend the exhibition, click here to register.
 |
| Masuma © Gervasio Sánchez |
The exhibition ‘WOMEN. AFGHANISTAN Gervasio Sánchez’ is an exhibition including portraits by Gervasio Sánchez, photographer and journalist specialised in armed conflicts. Mónica Bernabé is the author of the texts, being the only Spanish journalist who permanently reports from Afghanistan.
The exhibition shows the endemic and structural violence against women in Afghanistan, a social problem enhanced by war, the existence of widespread impunity in the country, lack of education, the biased use of religion and sexist laws.
 |
| Zar Gul © Gervasio Sánchez |
The exhibition, made up of 150 photographs is divided into six sections. The main topics addressed are: forced and child marriage; the running away; drug dependence; suicide; legal developments and reality; and consequences of impunity and war. It also shows those crosscurrent women who despite this unfavourable context have found a way to be heard in this environment of hostility and have a presence in the public sphere, limited to men in Afghanistan.
To carry out this project have been required six years. The first photographs were taken in 2009 and the last ones in 2014. It has been necessary eight long journeys in Afghanistan by the photographer and the participation of Monica Barnabé, who has been nearly eight years living in Afghanistan, as well as the support of the only Spanish organization working in Afghanistan, ASDHA.
Gervasio Sánchez defines the present situation in Afghanistan as follows: “In recent years I have carried out hard projects on the maimed by landmines, victims of enforced disappearances and the brutal consequences of the armed conflicts. I'm not easily frightened. But I have to admit that in Afghanistan I found the worst side of human beings: their inability to feel empathy and compassion for the victims, and degrees of violence and impunity unlikely to be seen in other countries”.
 |
| Afgani © Gervasio Sánchez |
The project -Mónica Barnabé says- helps deepen the causes of violence against women and the problems generated beyond simplistic or superficial judgments based on clichés, such as using the burka or hijab. The journalist also claims vigorously the importance of peace, justice and education for social changes occur, and speaks of the key role played by new generations: youth, both men and women.
Gervasio Sánchez works as a journalist since 1984. His works are published in Heraldo de Aragón, La Vanguardia, and he also collaborates with the Spanish radio station Cadena SER and the British BBC. He is the author of several books collecting shocking images, such as Niños de la guerra, Sierra Leona. Guerra y paz, La caravana de la muerte. Las víctimas de Pinochet, Latidos del tiempo, Desaparecidos/Víctimas del olvido, Vidas minadas and Sarajevo 1992-2008 (published by Blume). Sánchez has been awarded a great number of prizes: Cirilo Rodríguez, Club Internacional de Prensa, Andalucía de Cultura, Derechos Humanos de Periodismo, Liber Press, Javier Bueno and Joan Alsina de Casa América Cataluña; Aragonese institutions awarded him the Santa Isabel de Portugal Gold Medal and the Medal of Work Merit. In 2008 he was awarded the Ortega y Gasset Prize for his photograph Sofia Elface Fumo con su hija Alía and in 2009 he was awarded the Spanish National Photography Prize. In April 2011 he was awarded the Julio Anguita Parrado International Prize for his «independence, journalistic excellence and his clear civic awareness and permanent civic commitment». The jury also recognised him as «an outstanding figure in photojournalism». In May 2011 he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Civil Merit of the Social Security. He is an special envoy for peace of UNESCO since 1998.
Mónica Bernabé is a Barcelona journalist who worked for years in the newspaper El Punt, as responsible for immigration and gender themes. As a result of her first trip to Afghanistan in 2000, she founded the Association for Human Rights in Afghanistan (ASDHA), an NGO which currently chairs. Between 2000 and 2007 she travelled every year to Afghanistan, where she settled as a freelance in mid-2007. She is the only Spanish journalist working permanently in the country, and for her work in conflict zones and her constant denounce of the violation of human rights and rape of women she has won several awards, such as the Julio Anguita Parrado Prize for journalism (2010), the Proteus Prize in the field of culture and communication (2011) and the Cirilo Rodriguez Prize for correspondents (2013). Her articles are published in the newspaper El Mundo and she also collaborates with other Spanish media such as Radio Nacional de España, Catalunya Ràdio and Canal Sur TV, among others.
