Women of the Congo

Barcelona photographer Isabel Muñoz, winner of the 2016 National Photography Award, presents the struggle of Congolese women against the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war. For decades the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been involved in conflicts over the control, extraction and distribution of natural resources such as coltan, diamonds and oil. This exhibition is a series of portraits and testimonies of women from Bukavu, in the province of South Kivu, in east Africa. It aims to bring visibility to the plight of these women and the violence they suffer, while at the same time inviting viewers to reflect on the way the women act in the face of suffering, in many cases refusing to be victims and trying to find ways to survive with dignity.