On April 24 and 25, members of the Middlebury College community joined artists Abdullah Elhan, Negina Azimi, Marwa Azimi, Zuhra Nadem, and Sean Kiziltan, five members of ArtLords. Established in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2014, this collective of Afghan artists transformed the city’s blast walls into powerful social-justice murals. The designs here are a few of the original murals that the Taliban have since whitewashed and are now being recreated and preserved.
One of the paintings features text taken from the poem “Ney Namah” by the 13th-century Persian poet Mawlana Jalaluddin Mohammad Balkhi, also known as “Rumi.” The style of Persian calligraphy is called Shekasta-Nastaliq. Translated from Farsi to English by Associate Muslim Chaplain and Interfaith Advisor Zahra Meybodi Moeini, Sajia Yaqouby ’25.5, and Abdullah Elhan, the text reads:
Listen to the reed flute, as it recounts / Complaining of the separation / They have uprooted me from the reedbed / Men and women lament in agony from my cries / Whoever remains distant from their roots / One day, again, they will seek to reunite
The mural and painting initiative was organized by history of art & architecture major Sajia Yaqouby ’25.5 and Visiting Assistant Professor of History of Art & Architectural Studies Sarah Rogers. It was sponsored by the Committee on Art in Public Spaces, the Middlebury College Museum of Art, the Committee of the Arts, Department of the History of Art and Architecture, International & Global Studies-Middle East and North Africa, Axinn Center for the Humanities — Mellon Humanities for All Times Initiative, Elizabeth Hackett Robinson ’84 Innovation Hub and Office of Equity.
We are grateful for discussions around the mural’s design with History of Art & Architecture courses: Art, Migration, and Museums (Fall 2024 and Fall 2025) and Modern Art (Fall 2025).
