Specialties
Contemporary

Amal Alwan

In 1975, when I was in primary school, Al Doroobi, who is now one of the oldest artists saw my drawings and agreed to teach me. He became my teacher and mentor.  He gave me oil paints and other supplies, and he encouraged me.  This is how I began as an artist and painter.

While studying at the university, I exhibited in many galleries. Since 1982, I have exhibited in private galleries with other artists in Baghdad. I married in 1991, the year that the U.S. sanctions took effect, and I stopped painting because we did not have much money.

In 1995, I was working as a teacher, earning only $1.50 an hour under the sanctions regime, when I met Voices in the Wilderness, a group formed to challenge the economic warfare being waged by the US against the people of Iraq.  The members of Voices encouraged me to resume painting and helped me to sell in the U.S.

Three days before the war of occupation of the US on Iraq, we left for Syria.  When we returned to AlKarada our house had been looted.  We began working to furnish it, but two months later it was destroyed by U.S. bombing.  In 2004, we decided to leave Iraq. We went to Amman and applied for permission to enter the U.S. It was not granted, so we stayed in Amman. We enrolled our children in school, and I resumed my studies in economics and continued painting.

When we left Amman to renew our three months statutes, the border of Jordan refused to allow us to reenter Amman. Today, we are stuck in Baghdad. Our children were not able to resume their schooling in Amman. We live without a house or income. I work with www.humanity.org and as an independent journalist. Both positions are unpaid.

My friends are my support system, helping me to market and sell my work, which is my family’s only income. My husband has yet to find work after returning from 12 years in the Iraqi army. We have three children -- Abeer, 15; Omar, 11; and Ali, 7.                       

- AMAL ALWAN



                                

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