Embroiders of Actuality: Working through Crisis with Material and Art

Today is World Refugee Day, a day in which we reflect on the struggle and hardships that face the millions of forcefully displaced individuals all over the world. A new project, entitled Embroiders of Actuality, celebrates the sense of resilience that plays its own role in the refugee crisis. Being a difficult time in the region for refugees, this project aims to provide valid commentary on civil society’s engagement with refugees and in particular, women who are refugees.

The project takes its form as a visual dialogue about women’s dynamic position within society, and has become an active exchange between artists and local populations, mapping the complexities and diversities of empowerment and resistance. Utilizing traditional art forms, embroidery, poetry, literature and film, tales by and from local women explain notions of identity, belonging and tradition. Giving these women a platform to use their voice through various mediums to tell their own stories, rather than have media tell stories for them, this project helps to explain myriad complexities felt by these women.

For more information: Visit the Embroiders of Actuality official website and peruse the various art projects that have been created by the women as part of this project.

To learn more about embroidery throughout the Arab World, check this book out: