Afghan Women’s Stories in "Unfolding Projects" Exhibition in Australia

The Burnie Arts Centre in Tasmania, Australia, recently hosted a unique exhibition titled Unfolding Projects: While We Are Waiting — a collaborative cultural initiative that reflects the lived experiences of Afghan women in exile through the lens of art.

The exhibition is the result of a collaboration between 16 Afghan women writers and 21 Australian women artists. Through multimedia artworks, artist books, and interactive videos, it conveys the personal, emotional, and cultural narratives of Afghan women who were forced to flee their country after the Taliban’s return to power.

The exhibition ran from June 4 to July 12, 2025, at the temporary gallery space “The Bridge” within the Burnie Arts Centre, and during this period, it attracted significant attention from local and international media and audiences.

The Burnie Arts Centre described the exhibition as “a deep and moving experience. The Australian artworks have responded thoughtfully to the Afghan women’s writings, inviting you to physically unfold their stories.”

Since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, artistic expression in Afghanistan has been severely restricted and suppressed. The regime banned music, painting, and other forms of art depicting human figures, forcing many artists to flee the country.

This project was designed to highlight the identity, resilience, and lived realities of Afghan women in exile. By portraying the struggles and hopes of these displaced women, the artworks provide viewers with a deeper understanding of migration and exile, especially from a gendered perspective.

The Australian art collective Unfolding Projects has been engaged in text-image exchanges with Afghan women for over 15 years. In a statement, the group said, “Our goal is to express women’s rights, with the hope that the voices and experiences of Afghan women can be heard outside their homeland — a place where they are silenced.” According to the group, the 21 artist books created for this project combine visual art and text to foster spaces for creative dialogue and cultural connection between Afghanistan and Australia.