Rafooghar at the Asian Women’s Film festival
Our community exhibition was a big hit. Following its success, we were invited to showcase the works of Rafooghar at the 19th Asian Women’s Film Festival- a three day event at the India International Centre, New Delhi. It was a great experience as the works created by our women got to reach a wider audience and their stitched stories managed to touch the hearts of many.
Foziya ji sharing her Rafooghar journey with everyone.
L to R: Aanchal Kapur, founder-Kriti Film Club; Nina Sabnani- animation artist, storyteller; Foziya ji- artist-Rafooghar; Pooja Dhingra-founder-Compassion Contagion +Rafooghar and Laila Tyabji- social worker, craft activist and founder of Dastkar.
Rafooghar was introduced to the audience by Nina Sabnani- an artist and storyteller who uses film, illustration and writing to inform and enlighten her audience and the exhibition was inaugurated by Ms. Laila Tyabji -a renowned social worker, craft activist and founder of Dastkar, a Delhi-based non governmental organization, working for the revival of traditional crafts in India.
Pinky leading the walkthrough and sharing Nandini’s story with Nina ji. Below: Works from the modules Teri Meri Pehchaan and Zindaki ke Nakshe
Rafooghar’s community collaborator and Yellow Streets founder with documentary filmmaker-Nausheen Khan
Women thoroughly enjoyed being at the beautiful premises of the India International Centre, amidst the spring blooms and were excited to interact with so many filmmakers and other dignitaries.
Fouziya ji teaching a stitch or two to the curious visitors
Laila ji spending time with Gulafsha ji, Nahid ji, Foziya ji and Billo at the Love Lihaaf Baithak
Laila Tyabji’s beautiful note on Rafooghar truly captures the essence of our project.
“A lovely - and moving - morning in one of my favourite places in New Delhi. In the dappled sunlight and shade of the spreading gnarled old trees in the Gandhi King Plaza at the India International Centre, dangling marigold latkans, the gentle rippling whispers of the water body, and the lively voices of women....
Accompanying the 19th Asian Womens Film Festival was a small celebration of the Rafooghar Project, bringing together women from Jasola and Shaheen Bagh, to work together, embroidering their stories and their lives and stitching together friendship and understanding in the process.
Rafoogars are of course, our traditional Indian master darners, known for their skill in invisibly mending our shawls and carpets. Rafooghar, the project’s name, means The House that Mends, with the women, so divided by community and recent politics, united under its roof, meeting weekly, paired together and sharing their stories and the common threads and themes of their lives.
As we sat chatting, they said that it seemed incredible that less than a year ago they didn’t know each other, and now they couldn’t imagine life without these close friendships. “I can say things to her I can’t share with my husband,” said one, as they held hands. Their embroidered and patchworked pieces, exhibited in the Gandhi King Plaza and the IIC foyer, tell many stories - of oppression as well as liberation, of sadness, joy, rage, and unfulfilled dreams, of sexual molestation and the bondage and limitations of marriage (but also it’s companionship), the longing for a home of their own, their striving for freedom and education for their children.....
These are not refined embroideries or artworks, but all the more powerful in their raw, simple images, vibrant clashing colours and wonky stitches. Most moving of all are the self portraits, one with tears running down her otherwise immobile face.
As I said yesterday, Indian craftspeople are so skilled but have no voice or visibility of their own, and of them Rafoogars are the most skilled and most invisible, since their very art is repairing the pieces made by other craftspeople, so skilfully that their own stitches and craftsmanship are unseen. The Rafooghar Project does just this, mending fissures and holes of which we might not even be aware; in the process darning together both wounds and women - invisibly but indivisibly. The Shaheen Bagh peaceful protest of 2019-20 was an inspirational story, Rafooghar is its worthy successor.”
Thank you for inviting me to be there.”
Event Photographs by Antasa Vairagya
Daastaan-e-Rafoo Poster photo by Harmeet Basur