The gaze of Sharbat Gula

In Summer 2017, in collaboration with Francesco Iannuzzelli, a concert in Siracusa, Sicily, to compliment an exhibition of photography by Steve McCurry. The exhibition's primary selling point was the famous photograph of Afghan refugee Sharbat Gula. Rather than directly entering the debate about media exploitation of the dispossessed, we decided to present a programme that focused our ears on the extraordinary lives of women from Afghanistan to Sicily. Our programme included songs and instrumental music by women, and about women, from Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, Turkey, Greece and Sicily. In varying combinations, we sang and played*oud,*percussion, Afghan rubab, and guitar.