CAIRO: Eight-year-old Yassin Geassa's drawing depicting gender discrimination was among 14 winning paintings chosen in the European Union's International Drawing Competition on Gender Equality. In his painting, which earned him a ?1,000 prize, Geassa showed three sisters walking alongside a donkey carrying their brother and parents. A caption read, "We are Basma, Farha and Laila. We are three sisters, very sad because our father and mother always prefer our brother Hossam more than us. They take him to school every day on the donkey, while we have to go to the farm all day walking. Geassa lives in Alexandria where he attends art classes after school and hopes to be an interior designer. His mother is also an artist and owns a gallery in Alexandria. Geassa's visits to Tanta, his father's hometown, inspired his painting and have an impact on his drawings in general, according to Nadia Kandil, his art teacher. "Yassin has a unique way in drawing faces, which I really like and try to preserve, she said. "He is much more mature than his age. Geassa's drawing was one of the 14 drawings chosen among 25, 000 others from children all over the world. The competition was initiated three years ago with the aim of encouraging children in developing countries to express there ideas on gender equality through a drawing. The selection of the drawings was in the presence of Her Royal Highness Princess Mathilde of Belgium and Koos Richelle, director general for EuropeAid Cooperation Office of the European Commission. The winning drawings will be inaugurated at the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women in Morocco in November 2009.
