Wina Sepehri
Urmia – Women always find a way to tell what they experience, sometimes by using a sculpture, song or painting.
In a gallery in Urmia, new stories are told through paintings made by not famous artists but women survivors of violence. The painting exhibition called, “We are here and we survived” has been held at Café Gallery located in Hasani Street of Urmia from August 1 and 6, 2025. More than 50 paintings made by women and girls taking shelter at Mehr-e Shams Afarid, a local NGO supporting survivors of violence have been displayed at the exhibition.

“Each painting tells a story,” the exhibition organizers told NuJINHA. The exhibition aims to tell the stories of women survivors of violence and sell the paintings made by them to “empower women economically. “The sale of each painting means one more month of safe space for women, and one step closer for a girl to return to school.”
Mehr-e Shams Afarid is a non-government organization supporting women survivors of violence in Urmia. Each painting displayed at the exhibition tells a story of women, who resisted and survived gender-based violence.

One of the painting displayed at the exhibition made by Shahla K., 41, a victim of child marriage. She endured domestic violence while raising three children for years. After taking shelter at Mehr-e Shams Afarid, she depicted her story in a painting of two fish. “I don’t have a pond,” she said. “But I can live in a vase full of water — sometimes as a free fish, sometimes as a captive.”
Another painting named, “First the darkness, then the light,” tells the story of Mahtab G., 20, who suffered years of sexual abuse by relatives. After telling what she experienced to a neighbor, the family did not stand idly by— they started a legal action, which eventually brought her to Mehr-e Shams Afarid. She chose green, symbolizing nature, as the dominant color in her painting. She told us that she does not miss her home, but remembers the green courtyard of her rural house.
“The Gift” is the name of the painting made by Nasim F., 22, who faced stigma after her divorce.  After the Mehr-e Shams Afarid provided legal and psychological support to her, she moved to Urmia with her mother during the Newroz celebration in 2024.
The most common technique used for paintings is hand printing. Women and children leave the marks on white pages to say, “We were here and we survived.” They learned how to paint by attending painting courses organized by the Mehr-e Shams Afarid in cooperation with several art organizations, becoming storytellers of their pain and witnesses to their existence in this world.