Basra artist with cerebral palsy builds a following through his charcoal work

BASRA — Mujtaba Haitham, an artist with cerebral palsy, creates charcoal and color drawings from a room in his family home in Basra governorate’s Khor al-Zubair district, using Instagram to sell his work and challenge perceptions about the abilities of people with disabilities.

Haitham said he began drawing to prove that people with disabilities are no less capable than others. “My beginning was about proving that people with disabilities are no less capable than others. We are human beings of flesh and blood, and we have creativity, ambition, feelings and goals. So do not look at us as though we are incomplete, but look at the talent we possess. We may have abilities equal to those of an able-bodied person, or perhaps even greater,” Haitham told 964media.

His most expensive work, titled “Impossible Love,” sold through Instagram to a buyer in Turkey for 300,000 dinars, about $196. The painting took a month to complete. “The value of a painting is not measured by its price, but by the idea and emotion it carries,” he said.

Haitham said portraits of older people can take more than a month, while drawings of children typically take one to two weeks. He prefers to depict ideas and emotions, and works mainly in charcoal because it gives him the result he wants.

His Instagram page has widened his reach, helping him build relationships in Iraq and abroad and obtain materials and support. Women make up the largest share of his customers and have been his strongest supporters, he said. Haitham has taken part in several exhibitions in Basra and hopes to stage one abroad.

Kazem al-Mohammadawi, head of the Basra Foundation for Children with Cerebral Palsy, said Haitham had shown both determination and talent but still needed support from government and professional institutions. “Mujtaba is a young man with great determination and genuine talent in drawing, but he still needs support from government and professional institutions to continue his artistic career,” Mohammadawi told 964media.

The foundation has given Haitham art supplies and helped organize two exhibitions of his work at the Basra Artists Syndicate, another on al-Farahidi Street and one alongside the opening of a cerebral palsy center.

“People with special needs do not need pity, but rather the fair delivery of their rights guaranteed by law,” Mohammadawi said, adding that many provisions of Iraq’s law on the care of people with disabilities remain unimplemented because of bureaucracy in state institutions.