Negina Azimi painted her first mural as a member of ArtLords of Afghanistan in March 2017. It was Nowruz, the Persian New Year, a celebration of spring and new beginnings. The 18-year-old had just graduated from fine arts school when she picked up a paintbrush and joined other members of the artist collective on their latest project. Their canvas: one of the thousands of ugly concrete blast walls scattered across Kabul to shield schools, homes and offices from terrorist attacks. The mural they painted captured a happier reality — the smiling faces of Zohra, Afghanistan's first all-women orchestra. In the deeply patriarchal society, where the role of women in public life was strictly curtailed by social norms, a tribute to female musicians painted by female artists was "a bold statement," Azimi said. "That mural made my whole year." Four years later, the existence of that mural and others like it drove the young artist from her homeland. Taliban forces swept into power in August 2021, toppling the Afghan government and imposing oppressive religious laws that banned images of women in public. On the day the Taliban arrived in Kabul, Azimi was painting another public mural about land mine removal. As the streets fell eerily quiet, she ran, leaving the mural unfinished. She and her younger sister, Marwa Safa, who was also a member of ArtLords, said goodbye to their family and friends and boarded separate flights out of Kabul. Today, the Azimi sisters live in Brattleboro, where they still make art. They are part of the diaspora of the ArtLords collective, most of whose members also fled their homeland to escape persecution by the Taliban for their provocative community murals promoting democracy, peace and human rights. The sisters are among five members who came to southern Vermont as part of the first wave of Afghan refugees in early 2022. Since then, the Brattleboro ArtLords have made their mark on the local landscape, creating public murals in their town, in Bennington, and in schools, galleries and nonprofits around New England. They have run art therapy sessions for refugees from other countries, curated screenings of Afghan movies and taught Vermont art students how to collaborate on group projects. Recently, they completed a large painting that's on display in the BCA Center on Burlington's Church Street. While the Afghan muralists forge new lives and new careers in the U.S., the art…