Shah Tawassuli

Shah Tawassuli is a young Hazara man from Afghanistan. The Hazara are a terribly persecuted people. He has been held in an Indonesian Detention Centre for more than five years, although he has committed no crime. Shah is here with thousands of others of detainees, because he fled persecution to legally seek asylum.

Shah is not only an artist and photographer, he is also a barber, tailor and football player. He is a passionate human rights defender as well.

Shah refuses to allow his free spirit and creative nature to be dampened by his circumstances. He draws sunny flowers and peaceful and fragile birds which represent freedom to him. Shaw draws daily to remind himself that the spirit inside him cannot be locked away. His focus is not on being a prisoner. He is too busy dreaming of freedom.​

“It’s true that my body is prisoner…
But my thoughts and my heart are not prisoners.
No one can imprison my thoughts and my heart,
Because my thoughts and my heart are with those who I love”.   — Shah Tawassuli

Tawassuli’s art is available through the Asylum Art Market page, and also through his own website Shah’s Art.