To mark 100 year of International Women's Day, a five daylong photo exhibition, titled "Nari", is being held at Drik Gallery in the city. Renowned litterateur Selina Hossain inaugurated the exhibition on March 7 after a short discussion presided over by Shahidul Alam, managing director of Drik. One of the participating photographers and the first woman photographer of Bangladesh, Sayeeda Khanam, also spoke on the occasion.
In her speech Selina Hossain said, "Women are no longer lagging behind men in any aspect -- social, cultural, political and economic. Once I had to confront a noted male litterateur who was writing for a national daily, deliberately denigrating the status of female litterateurs of our country."
Sayeeda Khanam said, "When I started photography, things were different. I tried to document that time, space, society and personal life through photography."
Among Sayeeda Khanam's works is the familiar image of women marching with guns during the Liberation War.
While working with the publication "Chitrali", Khanam interviewed master filmmaker Satyajit Ray in 1962. She also participated in international exhibition held in Dhaka [in 1954] and in Cologne, Germany [in 1956]. Her photographs won prizes in All Pakistan Photography Exhibition [in 1960] and in Japan. She photographed eminent personalities like Queen Elizabeth II, Mother Teresa, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Kazi Nazrul Islam, Maulana Bhashani, Zainul Abedin and Pt. Ravi Shankar.
Viewers also showed interest in images of curiously placed fruits and the hard life of an adolescent girl under the shadow of religious misinterpretation -- by Nurunnahar Nargis and Momena Jalil Respectively.
Munira Morshed Munni, Nusrat Shihab Pinky, Salma Abedin Prithi, Roksana Islam and Ayesha Khatun Tamanna chose to highlight stories from everyday life, a freedom fighter's mother, an artiste engrossed in symphony, green room of an actor and a foreigner.
Taslima Akhtar Lima introduced the struggle of a female garment worker while Jannatul Mawa shed light on female Maoist activists in Nepal. Kakoli Prodhan's work featured varied forms of gender violence.
The exhibition will remain open from 3 pm to 8 pm everyday till March 11.
Source: thedailystar.net
