A refugee from Syria has captured the spirit of a global day for displaced people with an upbeat homage to the courage of those forced to flee war and poverty.
Diala Brisly, an artist and activist, found sanctuary in France where she has created the illustration entitled ‘Refugees are Courageous’.
She was commissioned by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) to mark World Refugee Day 2021.
Diala, who used people she knows as inspiration for the emblematic piece, says her work is about having the ‘energy to keep going’ through times of fear, trauma and upheaval.
This year, the theme is refugee artists and other contributions include a marquee video highlighting the work of prima ballerina Christine Shevchenko, rapper Belly and painter Chishimba Muyambo
Like Diala, they are expressing their identities and experiences through art after having to uproot and begin afresh, sharing their stories for today’s event under the ‘Refugees are Courageous’ banner.
‘I really like the slogan because it shows strength, regardless of all the troubles that we are going through,’ Diala said.
‘In my illustration for the IRC, there are men and women of different ages and cultures. And there is a character presented as LGBT+, and there is a child. It’s very important to show solidarity among refugees. I believe in solidarity between all people.
‘When we have this struggle in common, and we understand each other’s pain, we are able to help each other because we share similar experiences.
‘One of the characters in the illustration is wearing a life jacket. For me, a life jacket is symbolic.
‘The media puts the spotlight on refugees when they are in the middle of the sea. But it’s very important to understand that the crisis didn’t start in the Mediterranean, it started before.
‘For me, courage is having fears, having all this worry, having all this trauma, and still having the energy to keep going.’
After growing up in Kuwait, Diala moved to Syria with her family when she was aged 10.
She began creating animations for the Syrian channel Spacetoon before freelancing across comics, illustration books and children’s magazines.
After the uprising she initially turned to more political art as a form of self-expression, but was encouraged when journalists began sharing her drawings to supplement their reports.
Diala risked arrest as she secretly delivered medical supplies in her car despite checkpoints appearing and many colleagues working in hospitals being detained or going missing.
After being reported, she moved to Istanbul where she struggled to learn the language and find work, and also suffered the loss of her brother to the war.
Following a visit to refugee camps in Lebanon the artist decided to move to the country and lend her talents to projects helping the displaced people.
‘When I painted my first mural, I saw the impact it had on the kids,’ Diala said. ‘They really loved it. And they were very curious.
‘This small audience’s reaction encouraged me to do more murals.
‘I started running art therapy workshops.
‘A lot of the kids saw their close friends, their siblings dying in front of them in a very ugly way. So I realised how important it is to use art to empty out all this terror we have inside.’
Diala moved to France in 2016, where she lives in Valence and uses her art to confront her own trauma and defend the human rights of others.
She has created work supporting a women’s hunger strike in Syria and hosted art workshops in refugee camps. She currently runs art therapy workshops for children affected by war.
The day marks the end of World Refugee Week, during which Metro.co.uk has been sharing stories of uprooted people.
It comes as figures from the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, show a new record high in the number of refugees around the world.
Nearly 82.4 million people fled wars, violence, persecution and human rights abuses in 2020, according to the humanitarian organisation.
The figure is a 4% increase on top of the already record high of 79.5 million at the end of 2019, the UNHCR said.
For more information follow #RefugeesAreCourageous and @Rescue_UK.
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