Makush exhibits 13 Ethiopian women role models

By Alemayehu Seife Selassie

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - UNFPA organized painting exhibition that hopes to give recognition to Ethiopian women role models opened this past Wednesday August 29th at the Makush gallery. The exhibition that featured the women as ‘heroes of society,’ presents sculpture and painting art works that depict 13 contemporary women role models.The painting and sculpture works depicted on the exhibition is done by the 13 winners of an art competition sponsored by the UNFPA through the Addis Ababa University School of Fine Arts. Thirty-five art works were presented for the competition where only 13 lucky winners were chosen. The best 13 artworks were subsequently selected by a panel of judges.

Women in variety of lives have been featured in this exhibition. The portraits of paintings range from Empress Taitu Betul, to philanthropist Abebech Gobena, and athlete Meseret Defar.
“These were or are real women, who all Ethiopians have reason to be proud of: for their sense of duty to society and womankind,” said Monique Rakotomalala, UNFPA Ethiopia Country Representative. “More pointedly, these women were and are gatekeepers of Ethiopian culture, who have shown that giving up harmful traditional practices is compatible with maintaining values,” she said.

The portraits will appear in a calendar, being printed in connection with the new millennium under the theme “The Face of Ethiopian women in the new millennium”.
A painting by Abera Abraha shows a picture of women in hoods and only one woman in the middle has the hood down. This woman with the ray of light concentrating on her suggests that she is brave enough and becoming a model for others to emulate in amidst a group of women shrouded in the shadows. Mihret Kebede’s cotton string maker entangled by the string she makes, and Ruth Admasu’s women stuck on a spider web state that women fall prey to several harmful traditional practices. Bride abduction, early marriage, and sharing the bride with the best men, are all written behind the woman suggesting some of the harmful traditions present in rural Ethiopia.

Philanthropist Abebech Gobena depicted with a traditional cloth as a two dimensional Ethiopian faced woman is one painting that also speaks positively. Here the woman in painting has a green yellow and red flag on top of her hair suggesting that the role model also emanates light on the women in Ethiopia. Organizations that stand for women rights are also depicted in an artistic form. A woman being pulled out of a ditch with a “scales of justice” sign on top, shows the parts of the solutions the Association provides. The picture in mind here is the Ethiopian lawyers’ Association. Paintings that show women dressed in as nurse and working as a farmer also show the vital contribution women make to the society.

September 1, 2007