CIVICUS Board Elections 2022

Abigail Freeman

Omaid Sharifi​

I had always possessed an affinity for social change. Whilst growing up in Afghanistan, I came to experience first-hand the many challenges my country has been facing over the last four decades including war, violence, and poverty, but I’d never considered integrating my passion for art and culture with my love of protest, social change and giving voice to the voiceless until my first mural painting of an Anti-corruption campaign called “I See You”.

I am a Curator, Artivist, President of ArtLordsWartists, and Fellow at Harvard University. I am also a Millennium Leadership Fellow with Atlantic Council, Asia Society 21 and American Foreign Relations Council and a member of CIVICUS. 

Kabul is littered with thick concrete walls meant to protect civilians from suicide bombers, car bombs, and other extremist attacks. These are blast walls, T-shaped slabs that serve as means of protection, but also as a brutal reminder of the political unrest and dangerous conditions Afghans have suffered for nearly three decades. The walls are selectively placed to protect government buildings and the homes of the wealthy elite—leaving those outside unprotected. While many views the blast walls as a necessary, albeit ugly, evil, I saw potential for something beautiful in the blank concrete: a canvas. 

Along with friends, I established ArtLords in 2014 and Wartists in 2020. It is a global grassroots movement of artists and volunteers motivated by the desire to pave the way for social transformation and behavioral change through employing the soft power of art and culture as a non-intrusive approach.

My 20 years of work experience with Afghan Government, International Aid Organizations, and working with Afghanistan, South Asia, Central Asia and the United States civil society groups at the highest level prepared me to serve and give back to CIVICUS and its members and it has enabled me to fight the shrinking civic spaces in many parts of the world and be a voice for the voiceless. 

  1. My favorite quote:

Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” John F. Kennedy

  1. What skills are you proud of:

I paint murals and I have painted in many countries of the world. I am also a good storyteller. 

  1. Vision for Civil Society:

The shrinking civic space in places like Afghanistan with the recent take-over by the Taliban and many restrictions on civil society organizations in South Asia, in countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and India, and the limitations in the Central Asian countries has pushed me to believe that we need strong-global civil society institutions that is not bound or reporting to a government or State but has the ability to monitor and put pressure on the authoritarian regimes to open up the civic space. Having strong and transparent institutions like CIVICUS will have the leverage to lend a helping hand to indigenous and national civil society organizations to pursue their goals. 

  1. Lessons Learned from Failure:

I lost everything that I had acquired and built in my lifetime so far when I was forced to leave my homeland-Afghanistan on August 15th, 2021. The small backpack that I was allowed to carry was not enough to even carry my memories. We lost. 

However, it never stopped me from continuing my work, helping my fellow artists and activists, and continuing the advocacy for Afghanistan and the region and becoming a voice for all the voiceless people who are taken hostage in Afghanistan. 

Failures and heartbreaks are part of life. The important point is how to process it and move forward. 

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