Direction: Kubra Khademi / Sound narrative: Mortaza Behboudi / With the testomonies of: Laila, Narges, Suhaila / Scenography, plastic installation and performance: Kubra Khademi / Video: Anonymous videographers in Kabul and Mortaza Behboudi / Video editing: Noor Azizi / Lighting: Juliette Delfosse / French voiceover: Alia Liebert, Louna Giriat, Aude Denis, Ali Reza Rahimi, Afiz Rahimi, Juliette Frieh / Opening and closing voice: Maryse Burgot / Sound engineer: Thomas Jankowski / Sound management: François Gabert / Sound mixing: Eric Boisteau / Technical management: François Lewyllie / Production: Maria-Carmela Mini
Kubra Khademi and Mortaza Behboudi
Afghan Women: A Desperate Vitality
In collaboration with anonymous artists from Kabul
- Installation
- Performance
With English translation /
Persian /
In an Afghan living room, three women recount their lives, their struggles and their resistance in a series of videos. Amidst carpets, ceramics, pictures of Kabul and Kubra Khademi’s live performance, a story emerges that lives on despite repression and silence.
Visitors are invited to enter a space designed as an Afghan living room, gathered around a large tablecloth spread over carpets, on which ceramics by Kubra Khademi pieces are arranged. Four windows along the walls offer a view of the streets of Kabul through videos. They show and tell the stories of three women: Laila, founder of a clandestine school for girls; Souhaila, an artist and singer; and Narges, a former teacher fighting for the release of her husband imprisoned by the Taliban. Deprived of education, freedom of movement, and public expression, they nonetheless continue to resist in secrecy, through learning, creation, and transmission.
Through sound, video, performance and a series of visual artworks, this immersive, performative installation invites the audience to hear, see and feel the everyday resistance of women in Afghanistan in the face of systemic violence, restrictions on their freedom of movement and the gradual erosion of their rights since the return of the Taliban.
The installation tells the story of this fragile, clandestine vitality – desperate at times, yet always alive. Despite violence and enforced silence, the bodies, voices, and struggles of women endure in Afghanistan: they are still there. The videos make their stories visible and audible, whilst Khademi’s ceramics and her own presence as a performer shape the space.
Kubra Khademi is a Hazara Afghan feminist performance and visual artist based in France. Her work is shaped by her life as a woman and a refugee. A graduate of fine arts programs in Kabul and Lahore, she created her first public performances to denounce patriarchy. In 2015, following her performance Armor, she was forced to flee Afghanistan. She obtained French citizenship in 2020. Awarded the title of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters, her work has since been shown in numerous international institutions.
Mortaza Behboudi is a Franco-Afghan war reporter and filmmaker. Renowned for his commitment to covering conflict zones, he was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the Media category in 2019. In January 2023, while on assignment in Afghanistan, he was arrested by Taliban intelligence services and detained for 10 months. During his detention, he was awarded the Prize for Freedom of Expression by the International Association of Press Clubs. He has published the investigative book “Woman, Life, Freedom: A Reporter Infiltrated at the Heart of the Iranian Revolt” (Stéphane Frantz di Rippel Literary Prize 2025), as well as “Fixers: Reporters Without Bylines”.
Team
Dates
Current
Price: 22 €, reduced 12 €
Combi tickets “Love is a Verb #2” (excluding the concert on 6.10.):
3 events for 30–50 €, reduced 20–40 €
6 events for 60–90 €, reduced 40–60 €
Credits
Production: Latitudes Prod. – Lille.
Co-production Festival d’Avignon, Théâtre de la Ville, Festival d’Automne à Paris, Les Halles de Schaerbeek,Théâtre Molière Scène, Nationale Archipel de Thau, Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles.
Supported by: DRAC Hauts-de-France, CNC (Centre National du Cinéma), Open Society Foundations via the Afghanistan Cultural Fund.
Thanks to: Maryse Burgot, L’École d’Art du Beauvaisis, and ceramists Amandine Brunet and Valérie Dubuisson. Based on an original idea by Caroline Gillet.
Location
HAU3
Tempelhofer Ufer 10, 10963 BerlinHAU3 unfortunately is not barrier-free. Access to the theatre is via a stairwell (3rd floor). If you need help, please contact our Ticketing & Service team at +49 (0)30 259004-27 or email us at tickets@hebbel-am-ufer.de.
