Statue of Lotus Flower founder unveiled in London

A 3D statue of Lotus Flower founder Taban Shoresh went on display in London recently, in recognition of her work with women and girl conflict survivors.

The ‘mini-me’ statue was created as part of Put Her Forward, a scheme recognising women who have positively impacted on others. In an effort to double the number of female statues across England, the lifelike models were constructed by the art collective None Zero One.

After being nominated for the award last year, Taban was selected as one of 25 women from across the UK to be honoured. Following a 3D body-scan, the foot-high statue – in which she even wears a Lotus Flower t-shirt – was proudly unveiled before friends and family at the Cathedral Windows at London’s National Theatre.

Put Her Forward was commissioned by Heritage Open Days, which is run by the National Trust. A spokesperson from the campaign said: “There are 925 public statues in the UK. 158 of these are women, and of these only 25 are of non-mythical, non-royal women. There are more statues of people called John. There are more statues of goats.”

The Lotus Flower has so far supported more than 3,000 conflict survivors at specialist centres for women and girl in Kurdistan, northern Iraq. Taban said: “I was delighted to be nominated for Put Her Forward as it’s such a positive, pro-female scheme. To then be chosen as one of the final 25 statues was incredible. It’s a real honour and I’m thrilled to be amongst a group of truly inspiring women, who are all making such an importance difference to others.”

Check out the Put Her Forward winners and their stories here: http://putherforward.com/the-women/