Afghan artist Malina Suliman's plea: 'Help women and artists escape'

Malina Suliman, a prominent Afghan artist born in 1990, known for her 'skeletons in burqas' that appeared on Kabul streets in the 2000s, now lives in the Netherlands as an asylum seeker. She studied in Pakistan against her father's will and was confined at home for a year, but continued making art. She founded the Kandahar Fine Arts Association, which no longer exists. In Europe, she feels pressure to lose her identity to integrate, stating that Western museums dictate what art is. Her work has shifted from figurative to conceptual, but she still uses the burqa in performances, such as having women walk in Amsterdam and Kabul simultaneously, or inviting festival attendees to wear a burqa for twenty minutes. She criticizes the Taliban for distorting Islam and predicts they will destroy the country, urging the world to help women and artists escape. She holds a faint hope that Afghans, having tasted freedom, will resist the Taliban.