Mohammed Murshed makes rapid strokes of his paint brush as he works in his personal studio at the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon. He works swiftly and tirelessly as he creates eight different paintings at once, adding layers upon layers of black, blue, gray and red as he moves from one piece of art to the next. “This is how I prefer to work,” Murshed says. “I do it all once and don’t stop until it’s finished.”
His love of art originates back to his childhood. Murshed says he grew up in Yemen helping his mom with small projects of paintings and pottery, and with art playing a role throughout his life, he says he’s always considered himself an artist. However, Murshed says it wasn’t until he came to the United States when he could pursue a career in art. “I had a lot of opportunities with family in Yemen, but over there taking art as a profession is an odd thing.”
But for Murshed, creating art is not just a career path. It’s a healing method he uses to cope with the trauma he faces from the 2011 Yemeni Revolution. “I was in Sanaa at the wrong time,” Murshed said. “I lost two of my closest friends and I got diagnosed with PTSD.”
Murshed, a student working towards a Master of Fine Arts, moved to the U.S. seven years ago to pursue an education and avoid the fallout of the Arab Spring. He started out in Eugene, Oregon, studying psychology at the University of Oregon, but later switched to art because of his long-time passion for the craft.
Murshed’s artwork at the UO carried a purpose beyond college course-work. He said he wanted to express his feelings and enlighten other people suffering from PTSD. According to his colleagues from the UO, Murshed’s dedication to his art was evident. “He impressed me with his ability to contextualize what he was going through,” Professor David Reuter said, “and to process it into something that was not just beautiful in some ways but also relatable.”
One of Murshed’s friends from the UO School of Art, Adrion Kelley, said, “He hustles. That’s what makes him a great artist. He’s done stuff I’ve never seen anyone else do.” Another friend who has worked with Murshed on several art projects, Jason Soley, said, “I really appreciate his work. A lot of the stuff that he was doing was heavily rooted in issues back home.”
For Murshed, those issues back home propose a challenge he faces every day. In April 2018, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said in a public statement that “Yemen is the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. As the conflict enters its fourth year, more than 22 million people – three-quarters of the population – need humanitarian aid and protection.” The conflict that Guterres referred to is the civil war in Yemen, a power struggle between Ansar Allah forces – widely known as the Houthi movement – and the official government of Yemen.
The war has devastated Yemen and its economy, affecting the people of Yemen regardless of their involvement in the conflict. For Murshed’s family in Yemen, this has meant struggling for the essential resources people need to survive. “We speak on a daily basis to check on each other,” Murshed said. “But they’re suffering: no water, no food, no electricity. It’s the basic necessities of human surviving tools and they can’t even have those.”
Ali al-Kohlani, a Yemeni living in Yemen’s capital city Sanaa, said people in Yemen face challenges every day. “The problems they face are the airstrikes and the economic situation. The prices of food are very high, and people are not receiving salaries.” He said that when the war started, airstrikes led by Saudi Arabia would drag on 24 hours a day. “They never stopped day and night. They dropped on military camps and civilians, a lot of women and children were killed,” he said.
Saudi-led airstrikes funded by arms deals with Western countries – such as the $110 billion arms deal brokered between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia – have fueled the war in Yemen and taken a toll on civilian lives. In April 2018, an airstrike on a wedding party in northern Yemen killed more than 20 people. Then, in August, more than 40 children were killed when a school bus was struck by a Saudi-led coalition airstrike. These are only two examples of the atrocities that have taken place in Yemen since the start of the war, and al-Kohlani said he was frustrated by the lack of coverage from Western media. “Saudi Arabia kills children in Yemen every day,” he said, “but the media in the West does not cover this issue like they cover the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.”
From Murshed’s perspective, he said there was adequate media coverage of Yemen, but there were would be little to no impact on the U.S. regardless of public awareness or U.S. involvement in the war. “If you think about it, Yemen is not going to affect the United States no matter what,” Murshed said. “It’s not going to affect anybody because we’re all busy trying to work and make our living.”
However, despite the realities people face in Yemen and his constant worry for his family, Murshed said he was motivated to persevere and make his family proud. “It’s a challenge for me that I have to battle every day, but I want to lift their heads up by doing something and going to school.” He said he was determined to use his artwork to educate people on topics such as PTSD and the war in Yemen. “We have to start with education. That’s why I’m doing visual studies and an MFA,” Murshed said. “I want my art to touch everyone so they can see that art is a universal language.”
Artist and MFA student Mohammed Murshed in his personal art studio at the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon. The walls of his studio are lined with paintings he created for commission, personal interest and college coursework.
Murshed grew up in Yemen but moved to the United States in 2011 to avoid the fallout of the Arab Spring. Murshed ended up in Eugene, Oregon, studying for a BA in Art & Technology at the University of Oregon and moved to Portland after graduating in 2018.
Murshed grew up in Yemen but moved to the United States in 2011 to avoid the fallout of the Arab Spring. Murshed ended up in Eugene, Oregon, studying for a BA in Art & Technology at the University of Oregon and moved to Portland after graduating in 2018.
His studies at the Pacific Northwest College of Art are challenging – he says he’s reading about 700 to 1000 pages of coursework a week – but he’s determined succeed in his studies and make his family in Yemen proud. Murshed says that, ultimately, he wants to become a professor to educate people through art and cover topics such PTSD and the war in Yemen. He says, “I want my art to touch everyone so they can see that art is a universal language.”
How One Jordanian NGO Strives to Build a Culture of Reading
When Dr. Rana Dajani returned to Jordan after spending five years in the U.S. earning her PhD, she started to see aspects of Jordan in a different light. “You see things that you didn’t appreciate, and you see things you think could be fixed – both positive and negative,” said Dr. Dajani.
For Dr. Dajani, the thing she hoped to address was Jordan’s reading culture. “I realized that children don’t read for fun and it kind of hit me,” she said. “On the bus or waiting at the doctor’s – nobody has a book in their hand as a way to pass your time because you love it or you enjoy it.”
She asked herself: what is the magic formula for getting children and adults to fall in love with reading?
Her answer to this dilemma would become what is now known as We Love Reading, a non-profit organization based out of Amman that strives to nurture the love of reading among children.
Currently operating out of 42 different countries, We Love Reading founder Dr. Dajani said the NGO’s main method for promoting reading is through community story sessions. “It’s an adult man or women age 16 to 100, doesn’t matter, who reads aloud on a volunteer basis books to children that are appropriate for the language, context, and native tongue.”
Dr. Dajani said the hope with this practice is that the child becomes the reading champion in the home. After a reading session concludes, the children are able to borrow books provided by We Love Reading. “The child has to go back home and start either reading by themselves or reading to their siblings and friends, or they start asking their parents to read to them,” said Dr. Dajani.
By implementing this model in Jordanian communities, and in other communities across the globe, We Love Reading is able to foster a culture of reading while promoting educational benefits as well.
“Reports came from the parents that these kids did better at school,” said Dr. Dajani. “They started wanting to go to school not because the school is any better, but because they realized if they go to school they can learn to read and can unlock that magic.”
UNICEF education specialist, Fatima Mughrabi, said she did research on the impact of We Love Reading and found that it left significant improvements on the children and parents who participated in the reading aloud sessions.
“The stories are very simple but they have a big effect on the children,” said Mughrabi. “The demonstrations of the stories are great.”
Mughrabi added that reading for fun rather than study is crucial for promoting education, and that this practice promotes literacy and social values. “It’s to enjoy the reading itself and we need that,” said Mughrabi. “Unfortunately, we don’t have this as a practice in our community and in our culture in Jordan.”
However – despite acknowledging the fact that reading for pleasure is a rarity in Jordan – Dr. Dajani was not deterred in her aspirations for We Love Reading. “We want to reach every child in every neighborhood in the world – inshallah.”
In order to achieve this goal, she said the other crucial piece to the puzzle was utilizing the parents and community members.
“It’s not that parents don’t care about their kids or they don’t care about education – they do – but they don’t know that reading aloud is important,” said Dr. Dajani.
To increase parent involvement and awareness, training sessions are offered by We Love Reading that provide reading aloud tips, practice, and the youth stories necessary to hold a reading session.
“We Love Reading is not just about the kids; it’s about the adults feeling hope and building resiliency because they have control and agency over their lives,” said Dr. Dajani.
Since its creation back in 2006, We Love Reading has received awards such as the UNESCO Literacy Price, the King Hussein Medal of Honor, and the Clinton Global Initiative award.
But for Dr. Dajani, the most rewarding aspects of her work are not the accolades gifted to her from outside foundations. She said, “Knowing that we have the capability to help change a child’s life and an adult’s life in a simple easy way, nothing can equal that. Nothing.”
Volunteer Sita Muwas reads aloud to a group of children during a We Love Reading partnered story session. We Love Reading sessions are primarily held in neighborhood mosques but can be held in any pre-agreed upon space. This particular session is held in Muwas’s home.
Sita Muwas gives Abdalla (last name withheld) a We Love Reading children’s book so he can practice reading at home. We Love Reading strives to build a culture of reading by prioritizing the interests of children.
We Love Reading field officer Ghufran Abu Dayyeh teaches reading aloud practices to a group of volunteers. The We Love Reading organization offers trainings where volunteers receive the materials and skills necessary to hold their own reading sessions.
Two volunteers review a children’s book during a We Love Reading training session. The training took place inside a women’s Islamic center in Amman, Jordan.
Over 20 volunteers attended the We Love Reading training session. We Love Reading primarily focuses on nurturing the love of reading in children, but the non-profit also works to educate and train adults in reading aloud practices.
