Photographers and moviemakers staged demonstrations at Uzbek embassies in Moscow and Paris on Thursday in support of Uzbek photographer Umida Akhmedova, who has faced prosecution in her homeland over her "non-conformist" art.
On February 10, an Uzbek court found Akhmedova guilty of insulting "the whole Uzbek nation" with a series of photographs entitled Women and Men: From Dawn to Sunset and a documentary called A Burden of Virginity.
The images in question show village and rural life in Uzbekistan. They were part of a project funded by the Swiss embassy in Uzbekistan on poverty and gender inequality in the former Soviet republic. Akhmedova faced up to two years imprisonment.
Shortly before the protests, Uzbekistan pardoned Akhmedova, but the pickets were not called off and demonstrators have also called for press freedoms in the central Asian state.
Well-known Russian film directors and photographers, dressed in traditional Uzbek national costumes, are taking part in the demonstration in the Russian capital, carrying posters calling for the Uzbek nation to "be proud of Umida" and not to "return to the Middle Ages."
"An artist should be free," Viktoria Ivleva, a photo correspondent for Russian opposition daily Novaya Gazeta, said.
Some dozen protesters gathered near the Uzbek embassy in Paris carrying Akhmedova's pictures and handing out leaflets demanding freedom of speech in Uzbekistan.
"We came here to express support [for Akhmedova] and solidarity with the rally in Moscow. There are photographers and a representative of the Amnesty International (human rights watchdog). We are few, but we believe that our support is still important," Geraldine Renard, the protest's organizer, said.
Elsa Vidal, the head of the European branch of the Reporters Without Borders international organization, which protects journalists' rights, said representatives of the organization were planning to participate in the rally, but changed their mind after Akhmedova was pardoned. The organization, however, expressed it support for the protesters.
MOSCOW/PARIS, February 11 (RIA Novosti)
