Refugee Women’s Alliance (ReWA) is proud to highlight the amazing work of Seattle based, Pakistan born artist Humaira Abid, whose exhibition, Searching for Home, brings to light the lives of five young refugee girls whose sense of home has been shattered by conflict and displacement. Abid’s powerful artwork is currently displayed throughout the halls of ReWA at the MLK location.
Trained in Sculpture and Miniature Painting, Abid’s career spans continents, with exhibitions across Asia, Africa, Europe, and the United States. She is known for her bold and fearless approach to topics relating to women such as gender roles and cultural expectations.
In Searching for Home, Abid tells the stories of young girls living in refugee camps. Using the tradition of Mughal miniature painting, she goes against the grain by painting her characters straight-on, forcing the viewer to engage directly with the subject’s gaze. In doing so, Abid believes it restores their presence, giving voice to those too often silenced.
“In their eyes, you see both the trauma of what they’ve endured and the steel of their resilience. They are not symbols. They are survivors.”
Through Humaira Abid’s striking work, we are reminded that the refugee experience is not only about loss, but it also represents strength, endurance, and the promise of a new beginning.
From a photograph by AP photographer Muhammad Muheisen, on assignment in a refugee camp near Islamabad, Pakistan
From a photograph by AP photographer Hussein Malla, on assignment in a center for displaced Syrians in Kirbet Daoud village, Akkar, north Lebanon
From a 1992 photograph by Fazal Sheikh, published in his book A Camel for the Son (2001), which documented the arrivals of Somali refugees to displacement camps in eastern Kenya
From a photograph by AP photographer Muhammad Muheisen, on assignment in a refugee camp near Islamabad, Pakistan
From a photograph by AP photographer Muhammad Muheisen, on assignment in a refugee camp outside Mafraq, Jordan