The Afghan Project: Art made by women artists smuggled to an OKC gallery

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – Threads that won't break, links in a chain that stretch the limits of war and repression—the work in this show at the 1515 Art Gallery, which includes exquisite embroidery, handmade clothing, lapis jewelry, and even hand picked saffron, is made by women artists and artisans in secret beneath the Taliban regime, then smuggled out to the world.

"It's not easy," said Afghan artist Hasina Aimaq.

For more than 20 years, as the Taliban were pushed into the shadows, Aimaq and her mother patiently produced their own work and made connections to show work from other women artists.

"All those struggles and challenges through those 20 years, more specifically the women? Everything was gone in a minute," she said.

Her own art made a statement.

She fashions beautiful dresses from traditional head-to-toe burkas.

"I have a freedom of choice on how I want to use it," she smiles. 

A long way from Afghanistan and within the supportive confines of the gallery, Hasina can expand on her art and the work of the friends she had to leave behind.

"My vision was that I had to open the doors for them," she argues. "I need to connect them with the world."

Her family was the first aided by a group of Oklahomans, among them gallery owner Susan McAlmont, who managed to get close to a hundred others out of the country.

She recalls, "I wrote letters to everyone I knew pleading her case."

Aimaq's own traumatic experience is aided by helping the world see that beauty, hidden but still surviving in the shadows.

"I never stop," she tells us. "I will never stop. Nothing can stop me."

In the weeks before she was forced to leave, Hasina packed up a box full of samples to send the gallery here.

"I was a different person at that time," she tells a small gathering.

Those samples have been waiting for nearly 3 years.

She unpacked them for the first time Saturday morning, helping open a show delayed by war, but kept alive in beautiful, unbroken threads.

For more information about 1515 Art Gallery and the Afghan Project go to 1515lg.com.