MORE than 40 mixed handkerchiefs resulting from an artistic exchange between Afghan and Australian women have been acquired by the Australian War Memorial.

The handkerchiefs were sent in 2018 to the Organisation of Promoting Afghan Women’s Capabilities in Kabul, which was running literacy and vocational classes, as a way of support women in Afghanistan in their quest to acquire and use literacy skills.

Handkerchiefs were selected by Australian project founder, artist and printmaker Gali Weiss, because they were easy to transport and could be used with different media such as printmaking and embroidery.

First, the 19 Australian artists involved embroidered images on each handkerchief reflect their own environment, then the hankies were delivered to the centre in Kabul where Afghan women sewed their individual responses, such as “My aim is to become a judge”, “I want to live in freedom forever” and “I hope that no more Afghan mothers shed tears from the loss of their children”.

Afghanistan participant, Mursal Rahimi, said: “It means a lot to me and lots of other people in my country. It was amazing that women from two different countries with very different levels of education, with different languages, and very different cultures worked together very closely and provided such wonderful artworks.”

Weiss said: “As Australian women living in privileged circumstances, in a country whose military was involved in Afghanistan, we felt a responsibility to connect with Afghan women living in circumstances of war and immense hardships.”

The handkerchiefs will be taken into the National Collection where, AWM director Matt Anderson, said, their messages of hope, the pain of war, and the resilience of women would become “a treasured addition to the Australian War Memorial”.