For years, when he walked the streets of Kabul, Kabir Mokamel felt stifled by the cold gray concrete blast walls that have come to line this once-green city.
"I feel like we are under siege," the Afghan Australian artist said. "Everywhere we go, we are surrounded by barriers."
Four years after returning to Afghanistan from Australia, where he sought refuge during fighting in the 1990s, Mokamel has embarked on a street art project that he hopes will make the walls "disappear."
His plan is to paint the concrete slabs with richly colored murals addressing what he views as the ills of Afghan society that have emerged in the 14 years since the U.