VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS

AN INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION
'WOMEN STRUGGLE, WOMEN RESIST'

Venue: Gorky Sadan, Kolkata
Inauguration: 29th November 2006, 6 pm
The exhibition will contune till 4th December 2006, 3 pm - 8 pm

Violence against women has many dimensions – psychological, emotional, physical, and it is perpetrated in many spaces – domestic, social, state. Violence against women has risen at an unprecedented rate. The trauma that women undergo is not measurable or quantifiable statistical analyses and lengthy reports tell us little about the horrors of violence, or of women's courage. The international photography exhibition 'Women Struggle, Women Resist' is part of a process of initiating social changes – it documents not only the struggles but also the resistance of women to domestic and state violence. Visually stimulating and thought-provoking, these photographs by socially committed national and international photographers lay bare, question, challenge and go beyond the stereotypical 'grieving mother' or 'women of sorrow' and present those women who have both resisted and survived. In a section of this exhibition one encounters the women of Manipur who with fierce courage, inner strength and a collective sense of dignity have brushed aside the limitations of victim hood and resolutely stood against the torments and tortures of state violence.




This exhibition will not end here – it would continue as a touring exhibition, not confined to galleries and circumscribed wall spaces so that it can reach out to a larger section of people with its striking collection of images and stories. I congratulate all the women who have shown the courage to fight back and have consented to be documented by the photographers. I thank the photographers for participating in this exhibition and for their continuing dedication to the cause of violence against women and girls. At the same time, I grieve the absence of images by women photographers without whose participation the exhibition remains incomplete.





Suvendu Chatterjee

Curator

Drik India


The event is organized in collaboration with Swayam, and International Association of Women in Radio and Television, and is supported by
Ford Foundation.

ALL ARE WELCOME


For more information contact:
Ms Supreeta Singh
Drik India