Italy takes in Afghan artist Omarzad

(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 15 - Italy has taken in Afghan artist Rahraw Omarzad, Culture Minister Dario Francschini announced Friday after the artist, lecturer, curator and leading light on Afghan's creative scene touched down with his family in Rome.
    Franceschini said Italy was offering Omarzad sanctuary "in defence of creative freedom".
    Omarzad will settle in Turin where he will collaborate with the Castello di Rivoli contemporary art museum and lecture at the Accademia Albertina.
    "This is a concrete gesture which also has symbolic value in defence of creative freedoms all over the world," said Franceschini.
    "It is another step by the Italian cultural world in a longstanding show of sympathy for the Afghan people." Omarzad, 57, is an Afghan writer, artist, lecturer and an expert on Afghan modern art.
    Until the Taliban takeover he was the founding director of the Centre for Contemporary Art Afghanistan (CCAA), a lecturer at Kabul University and editor in chief of Gahnama-e-Hunar Art Magazine. (ANSA).