As artists from all across Southasia gathered for Amnesty’s first ‘Arts for Rights’ festival here in Colombo, we seized the opportunity to talk to some of them. Editor Aunohita Mojumdar was in conversation with Maldivian photographer Dhahau Naseem, whose first-ever exhibition captured intense moments of confrontation between the Maldivian people and the Maldivian state. Her photographs provide a visual documentary of the years of repressive autocracy in the Maldives, which recently voted against the government of Abdulla Yameen.

Deputy Associate Editor Shubhanga Pandey spoke with Omaid Sharifi of ArtLords, a collective which has used the streets of Kabul to speak truth to power through murals. ArtLords, whose name is a play on the Afghanistan’s better known ‘warlords’ make the blast walls erected in Kabul their canvas for art and public engagement.

Go to www.himalmag.com for more on politics and culture in Southasia.

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Intro and outro music derived from 'Ways of Rahjan' by Ask Again from Free Music Archive.