Celebrating women through art and inquiry
On Wednesday, 11 March 2020, students from the Middle Years Programme (MYP) came together in as assembly to discuss how they commemorated International Women’s Day over the weekend. They exchanged art and information drawing attention to contemporary gender issues and inequality in the country.
This year, International Women’s Day happened to fall on the weekend but that did not deter the children from the Aga Khan Academy Maputo from commemorating it in their own way. A group of students from the residential programme put together a short bilingual presentation (English and Portuguese) on the history of this special day and even shared their thoughts through reflections on media.
Through the presentation the students attempted to highlight issues of equality, respect and equal opportunity. The presentation was ended with the recitation of two poems (in English and Portuguese). The poem recited in Portuguese was written by the students and spoke about the effect of discrimination against women.
Following the presentation, some of the Grade 9 students were presented with high-resolution print-outs of images they had clicked during the recent workshop with photographer, Frederic Roberts.
Head of Academy Michael Spencer joined the faculty and student body in congratulating the students on the usage of their photography skills. It was observed that majority of the photographs had female subjects and brought out life through experiences of women in different fields of life.
In this picture, Amisha Lakhani (Grade 9) attempted to highlight the plight of women within the informal labour sector.
Aziz Batada, Dean of Residences, addressed the gathering and spoke about the negative stereotypes women face. “We have to make it a point to acknowledge and appreciate for their contribution to society and not shun them based on their appearance,” he explained.
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