How does the home of the artist Afia Zecharia represent gender, ethnic and political discrimination?
Abstract
This research examines and presents Afia Zecharia as an outsider artist, situating her production within its historical, political, and social context in order to better understand her life and work. Through family interviews, cultural analysis, and historical review, this text offers an approach to the artist from the perspective that shaped her both as an artist and as a woman. The result is a life story that reveals how her work emerged from social marginality, migration, and Yemeni cultural traditions, incorporating influences from India, Ethiopia, and the Middle East.
The exclusion of women, illiteracy, and patriarchal structures—factors that contributed to her artistic invisibility—are also key elements for understanding Afia’s figure. Her dolls, her personal aesthetic, and her decorated home, conceived as her primary canvas and creative driving force, are interpreted as forms of resistance and identity reconstruction.
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