The Future is Unwritten: Hannah Thomas, Tears of Gold

Tears of Gold presents Hannah Thomas’s portrait paintings of of Yezidi women who escaped ISIS captivity, Rohingya women who fled violence in Myanmar, and Nigerian women who survived Boko Haram and Fulani violence. Through her art Hannah gives voice to the voiceless, lionizes the isolated and prescribes dignity to the persecuted and forcibly displaced. Many of the women in Hannah’s paintings personally suffered sexual violence; others represent their wider community and the countless stories of horror. All have been targeted on account of their faith and/or ethnicity and suffered additional vulnerability due to their gender, and all too often their stories remain unseen and unheard. Since 2017, Hannah has taught these women to paint their self-portraits as a way to share their stories with the rest of the world, using art as a tool for advocacy and bringing their stories into places of influence in the West. The simple act of painting their self-portraits is a way to affirm their identity and value—an act so important considering the isolation and shame these women have experienced due to the stigma of sexual violence. These paintings convey their dignity, resilience and unspeakable grief. Many of the women chose to paint themselves with tears of gold.

Art Project with ISIS Survivors
Iraqi Kurdistan

In August 2014 ISIS took control of Sinjar in Iraqi Kurdistan and abducted and enslaved over 6,000 Yezidi women and children. Iraqi officials estimate that 3,410 Yezidis still remain in captivity or are unaccounted for.

Hannah travelled to Dohuk in Iraqi Kurdistan with clinical psychologist Dr. Sarah Whittaker-Howe for an art project with Yezidi women who escaped ISIS captivity. The project was based at the Jinda Centre – Jinda is Kurdish for New Life - a rehabilitation facility in Dohuk, Iraqi Kurdistan.

The hope was to teach the Yezidi women to paint their self-portraits as a way to share their stories with the rest of the world and empower their voices to be heard. Hannah taught the women how to paint while Sarah recorded their testimonies. Testimony is an important part of the recovery process post-torture or sexual abuse.

Teaching these women to paint their self-portraits is a way for those who have never been to school or learned to read and write to share their stories with the rest of the world.

Self-portrait by Barfe. Barfe’s 7-year-old son was taken out of her hands by Daesh on the same day her husband was taken. She is haunted by the thought that her son is being trained to be a Daesh militant and that her husband has been murdered.

Most of the women wanted to paint portraits of themselves in Yezidi traditional dress of white robes.

After learning to draw and paint for the first time, the Yezidi women also requested that Hannah paint their portraits—a very moving experience for her. The gold-leaf background Hannah used is reminiscent of icon painting, to convey their inherent value and dignity in spite of all they have suffered in ISIS captivity. Hannah’s paintings are a reflection of the stories she heard.

Lelia, 31

“They took my 9 and 11-year-old sons. They took my 10-year-old daughter. They took my husband. I don’t know if they are dead, or alive. I pray to God that before I die I will see and hold them again.”

Lelia describes the moment of separation from her children and husband as death. She re-experiences the profound pain and helplessness that was forced upon her in that one moment in nightmares that awake her screaming.

Basse painted a haunting image of ISIS separating her from her 6-year-old daughter. “They took her hands out of my hands, and put her into the hands of the enemy ... every day and night I imagine what Daesh are doing to her. One day she may come back, but I know that she won’t recognize me as her mother.”

Basse has not seen her daughter for six years, her parents or seven brothers.

The Yezidi community have been targeted innumerable times in their history, denounced as ‘devil worshippers’.

Thus, the sacred imagery and symbolism is used to convey that we are all made equally and of equal value, regardless of religion, ethnicity or gender.

Advocacy Exhibitions
Hannah’s portraits and the Yezidi women’s self- portraits have been shown in striking juxtaposition in places such as the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace and Lambeth Palace. The purpose is twofold—it is both therapeutic and also for advocacy, to empower the women’s voices to be heard through the artwork.

Trauma Healing Programme for Surivors of Sexual Violence
Northern Nigeria

Hannah spent a week in Northern Nigeria for a trauma healing programme with a group of survivors of sexual violence at the hands of either Boko Haram or Fulani militants. The project was facilitated by Open Doors.

Hannah taught the women to paint their self-portraits; sewing vibrant African fabric onto the canvas for the finishing touch.

The simple act of painting their self-portraits helped to affirm the survivors' identity and value, especially important considering the shame and stigma of sexual violence.

Since the beginning of the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria's northeast in 2009, millions have been forced from their homes. Boko Haram abducted thousands of women, holding them captive and subjecting them to sexual violence and forced marriage.

In recent years the security situation in the North has been exacerbated due to escalating conflict between predominantly Muslim nomadic herdsmen against Christian farmers. The Fulani herdsmen also use sexual violence to target women as a way to devastate communities. A report released by the UK Government in 2020 described the targeting of Christian communities in Nigeria as an ‘unfolding genocide’.

The art projects helped create a safe place for the women to share their stories. Telling our stories enables individuals to integrate traumatic memories and gradually begin to heal and to reclaim their dignity. Language is often insufficient to convey the experiences of trauma in conflict. Thus the arts can help unlock this process and provide a new form of communication to address the silence and unspeakable pain.

The primary need of survivors of violation and violence is to feel like a person again, to rediscover their own sense of personhood and voice. This was what Hannah hoped the art projects would do for the women, enable a restoration of dignity.

On the last day of the art project Charity said, “I am so happy. I have never held a pencil in my life before, and this is the first time I have been able to write my name and even to draw my face!”

Charity had been kidnapped by Boko Haram and held captive for three years. She was ostracized when she returned to her family in an IDP Camp in Nigeria’s North East. Her pain was magnified when her husband beat her and refused to accept her baby Rahila: she faces daily abuse, rejection and isolation in her community due to the stigma.

Aisha, 28

“I had no peace in my heart. I couldn’t eat, and I couldn’t sleep. Whenever I was alone, I remembered how those two men raped me... it is a wound that takes a gradual process to heal.”

A group of Fulani herdsmen attacked Aisha’s village at night. They took her husband away and two men brutally beat and raped her in her own home, with her three children in the room.

Aisha said: “I want the whole world to know that I have pain, I have gone through a lot and many other women in my village are going through a lot and that is what is happening here in my country. Women are going through a lot and they do not have anybody to speak out for them.”

PROJECT WITH REFUGEES
Bangladesh

During her time in the Kutupalong refugee camp, Hannah spent her mornings painting with children in one of 200 Child-Friendly Spaces run by BRAC. Unfortunately there was not the capacity to organize an art project with Rohingya women, as resources in the refugee camp were stretched.

However, Hannah had the honor of sitting with many women and hearing their heart-rending stories. The women gave permission for her to paint their portraits to raise awareness for the plight of the Rohingya. The paintings shine a light on some of the human stories which are often shrouded by statistics.

Lalu, 45

"I look much older than my age, because of the sorrow and suffering I have seen."

The Myanmar military captured Lalu’s family, forcing them into a house to be burned. While the army were rounding up more people in the village, Lalu’s family escaped. However, one of her nephews was killed when his clothes caught on fire and one of her grandchildren was shot by the military as they fled. The remaining family arrived at the Bangladeshi border and crossed the river by boat. The military pursued them on speedboat and the family’s boat sank, killing Lalu’s grandson. Lalu’s husband was saved from drowning, but he had drunk too much water and became dangerously unwell–he died soon after they arrived at the refugee camp. Lalu feels unspeakable grief for the loss of her loved ones and has been unable to move on, her mental and physical health increasingly frail.

"Dehumanization has been used to justify genocidal violence throughout history. It is essential to recognise our shared humanity and that we have more in common than what divides us."
- Hannah Rose Thomas

These paintings are a reflection of the stories that Hannah heard and of the ongoing trauma that the Rohingya community face, stranded in limbo, uncertain of what the future will hold. "Dehumanization has been used to justify genocidal violence throughout history. It is essential to recognize our shared humanity and that we have more in common than what divides us."
- Hannah Rose Thomas

Hannah painted the portraits using the traditional oil painting techniques of chiaroscuro and sfumato, as if to create an impression of flames flickering in the women’s faces, from the terrifying experience of witnessing their villages burned in Myanmar.

This series of paintings was shown in the European Parliament January 2019 to highlight the plight of Rohingya refugees.

Hannah Rose Thomas is an English artist and Durham graduate in Arabic and History, with an MA from the Prince's School of Traditional Art in London. In September 2020, Hannah began her PhD at Glasgow University with the UNESCO ‘Art Lab for Human Rights and Dialogue’ and Migration for Development and Equality.

While living in Jordan as an Arabic student in 2014, Hannah organised art projects with Syrian refugees for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, leading her to combine her art and humanitarian work. Hannah subsequently began painting portraits of refugees she had met to show the people behind the global crisis whose personal stories are often shrouded by statistics.

Hannah's portraits have been shown at the Houses of Parliament, European Parliament, Scottish Parliament, Lambeth Palace, The Saatchi Gallery and Durham Cathedral. Three of Hannah’s paintings of Yezidi women were chosen by HRH The Prince of Wales for his exhibition Prince & Patron in Buckingham Palace in 2018. In August 2017, Hannah organised an art project in Northern Iraq with Yezidi women who had escaped ISIS captivity, and in April 2018 for Rohingya children in refugee camps on the Myanmar border. Her most recent project has been with survivors of Boko Haram and Fulani violence in Northern Nigeria.

Hannah was selected for the Forbes 30 Under 30 2019 and The Female Lead 20 in their 20s in recognition of her work. She is also a nominee for the World Humanitarian Forum Youth Changemaker Award 2020.