RAFIF ESLEEM

Gaza- Dalia decided to reveal social restrictions which deprive women of their simplest rights, as she lives with women's reality in the besieged Gaza Strip.

While looking at one of her paintings on the wall, she says that each element in her paintings has a specific meaning, the closed Palestine society in which women live.

She began to create the models in her childhood as she wasn't able to move. Nothing changed indeed, so she keeps those elements in her paintings with the body of a young woman. She expresses the political situation faced by Palestinian women by painting the curves forming a shackled body as an expression of negative repercussions suffered by.

She has faced many criticisms for her paintings under the pretext that they are bold and do not suit society. She was prevented from displaying her artworks in one of the international culture centers in the Gaza Strip because they contained nudity and should not be shown in public. But she insisted on her opinion until the center responded to her request and finally she displayed her artworks.

The persistence is the main cause of her success because if she had not insisted on displaying her paintings, they would not have been displayed.  When she first painted to build a bridge between the critic and her artistic vision. She considers that the criticisms affect her artworks positively, so she takes the good ones to develop her artworks and leaves the rest to become forgotten.

She explained that she has a different way of dealing with ideas, because she lives in a war zone. So she decided to paint with the principle of the thing and its opposite, She tries to address the issues of war, society and women in her paintings by using bright colors that draw attention to eyes and the hearts when people look at them. She believes that even misery and problems can be delivered to the people in a beautiful and joyful way.

She indicated that she prefers drawing without specifying a time for artists so that they can participate in specific exhibitions whose topics are defined. Every year, she seeks to prepare a distinguished series to be displayed with her paintings in some international exhibition. She attends the exhibitions to connect with the world despite the difficult conditions in the besieged Gaza Strip.

She explained that her paintings draw attention to violence against women in all spheres of life. She wants to empower women by holding several courses to teach women how to paint, thus she provides a good way to women in order to free themselves and learn new artistic methods.

She added that she faces many problems, including the lack of raw materials for colors or importing poor quality to the besieged city because artists have to use the materials available in the market.