Since March 2002, Talar Nadr from the organisation WCIC has been working on the ground to develop the project. From Halabja in the south to Balissan in the north, Talar travelled hundreds of kilometres to meet and interview women. She encountered difficulties in the beginning to talk to the women and take their pictures. According to Talar "they were afraid of reprisals from the regime".

The women were chosen from different socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. During interviews they would tell their story and draw a picture of a bird, the symbol of freedom. Talar then photographed each woman with her drawing. Later, the story, the symbolic bird and their picture were given to a woman artist to make a painting. The ensemble of representations made their way to France in January 2003, just before the war started. Arriving in France, the text of each story (provided in Kurdish, French and English), the photograph and painting were framed as a distinctive portrait of each woman in question. As a whole, there are 34 paintings representing 34 lives deeply marked by pain, suffering and an extraordinary struggle for freedom and justice.

Who are these women?

They are between 7 and 54 years old. They carry in themselves the suffering of the Kurdish people: imprisonment, physical and psychological torture, deportation, life in the concentration camps, chemical bombardment, exodus and genocide. Their history witnesses one of the main human tragedies of the 20th century. The stories are not only the story of Rezan, Nasrin, or Shilan; it is the story of all Kurdish women.

Although they are mainly victims of the dictatorial baathist regime under Saddam Hussein, these women are also victims of the patriarchal system. Their bodies, spirits and lives are appropriated by the male members of their families and community, who subject them to another form of violence, no less terrible than the violence of the State. However, these women are not only victims, they also intervene to resist. They are writers, women military officers, musicians, working mothers and so on. Each wages combat against injustice and repression, to make way for a better life.

Ce fut l'occasion de montrer les prémices de l'exposition "Vies de Femmes/Vues d'artistes" et de prendre la parole lors d'une table ronde sur le thème de la Liberté.