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World Nepal refuses visa to famous Syrian artist
The protracted political strife simmering between Israel, Palestine and Syria has claimed new casualties with the government of Nepal refusing visa to a well-known Syrian artist to attend the republic's first international art festival starting next week. Randa Mdah, the 26-year-old Syrian artist who has refused to take Israeli citizenship and works in Palestine's Ramallah, has been refused visa by the Nepal Embassy in Tel Aviv on the ground that she does not have a passport and her travel document lists her as stateless. Mdah, one of the most powerful new artists from the Middle East, was last year named Young Artist of the Year by Britain-registered charity Qattan Foundation. She, along with her husband and father, had applied to the Nepal Embassy in Tel Aviv for visa to attend the First Kathmandu International Art Festival starting Oct 30 under the aegis of curator Sangeeta Thapa, whose Siddhartha Art Gallery is a landmark in Kathmandu's cultural world. The festival, to be held in three venues concurrently, is bringing together artists from nearly 30 countries as diverse as Afghanistan and Aruba, Sri Lanka and Sweden. Mdah was born in a village in the disputed Golan Heights, the rocky plateau on the borders of Syria and Israel that was seized by the latter in 1967. Though in the 1990s many people opted to take Israeli citizenship, Mdah prefers to call herself a Syrian. At the age of 18, she went to Damascus to study arts. However, since immigration rules meant she could not stay there for more than eight years, she returned to Golan but then decided to shift to Ramallah for greater freedom of work. The political dynamics of the region has made her stateless despite her talent. She doesn't have a Syrian passport and her travel document gives her nationality as "undefined". Nepal, though free with tourist visas, stopped issuing visas on arrival to the citizens of nearly a dozen countries, mostly in Africa and the Middle East, after a spurt in drug-smuggling and illegal immigrants. Both Palestine and Syria are among them. "It's most unfortunate," said Thapa. "The Nepal Embassy declined to issue Randa a visa saying that there was no precedent for issuing visas for an international art festival. "It's even more unfortunate because the foreign minister (who is also the deputy prime minister) Sujata Koirala is an artist herself who studied in India's Santiniketan." At least another Middle East artist has also become a casualty, thanks to politics. Palestinian Moon Monther, based in Gaza, will also be unable to come because of the visa difficulties. However, Palestinian couple Maya and Sam Alafaghani had no problem though they are based in Palestine as they are Swedish passport holders. sud/rd/jg ( 465 Words) 2009-10-22-12:46:47 (IANS)
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