Veilotics

"Women’s sexuality, in the Arab world, has determined the very nature of public and private space. Arab women traditionally occupy a private space, but wherever a woman is, when a man enters that space, he establishes it as public. This separation of public and private is testament to the power of women’s sexuality. It also helps explain how Arab women became sexualized under a Western gaze. In a sense, what the West did was to dissolve the boundaries between public and private, and—here is the important point—the Arab world responded by reinstating those boundaries in a way that would be clear and visible. Behind the veil, an Arab woman maintains a private place, even in public."

Lalla Essaydi

Read more of my interview with her here - Artistic Depictions of Arab Women: An Interview with Artist Lalla Essaydi

(via sharquaouia)

That “behind the veil” ruined it all. But do read the interview.

ananart:

Wonder Woman, Saudi-Style

azaadi:

Fighter by Khawla Al Marri

Leila Pazooki

Portrait Of A Young Egyptian Girl By Franz Xavier Kosler, 1900

(via androphilia)

darling80m:

Mendeel Um A7mad (NxIxSxM)

Mendeel Um A7mad (N x I x S x M) is a multimedia installation by New York-based artists Fatima Al Qadiri and Khalid al Gharaballi. It presents the the tissue box as an unlikely Kuwaiti national icon, and investigates the notion of “gendered space,” by uncovering the role, context, design and discourse present in Chai Dhaha. More here.

Saudi woman standing in front of an art installation during an exhibition for solidarity with Gaza (Jeddah, 2009)

Visual works by Seif Soliman. (via mashallahblog)

Technicolor Muslimah

About the Show:

Modern treatment of Muslim subject matter in art and media is closely tied to the political and religious controversy that seems to be pervasive in these “exotic” countries of the East. While much of the conflict is real, oftentimes, visual media and “Muslim art” do nothing to lessen the perception of the Muslim world as exotic, “other,” and entirely homogenous. Truly, much art and writing relies on the juxtaposition of the traditional and the taboo within Islam - the East in exact opposition to the West.

But doesn’t her art, and her framing of it, actually play into that juxtaposition?