Boushra Almutawakel is a Yemeni artist and photographer passionate about justice for girls and women rights. Her ongoing series about the hijab explores the many ways to look at this veil and how it affects identity of and assumptions about the women who wear it.
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| Untitled, The Hijab Series, 2002 |
In her words: After September 11, I was compelled to create images on the veil, particularly since Islam and Muslims had taken international center stage. I found that we, as Arabs and Muslims, were either demonized or romanticized.
Part of this paradoxical portrayal is the way Middle Eastern women have been portrayed artistically and/or in the media, as exotic, beautiful, and mysterious; or helpless, oppressed and ugly. Part of this portrayal, in many cases, has included the hijab.
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| Eyemotion, The Hijab Series, 2008 |
As an Arab Muslim woman living in Yemen who has first-hand experience with the hijab, I have mixed feelings regarding this topic. There are certain aspects of the hijab I like and others I don't particularly care for. I don't believe it is black or white. I found the veil to be an intriguing, complex, multilayered topic.
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| What If (2008) |
In this ongoing project on the hijab/veil I want to explore the many faces and facets of the veil based on my own personal experiences and observations: the convenience, freedom, strength, power, liberation, limitations, danger, humor, irony, variety, cultural, social, and religious aspects, as well as the beauty, mystery, and protection.
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| Mother, Daughter, Doll (2010) |
The hijab/veil as a form of self-expression; the veil as not solely an Arab Middle Eastern phenomenon, the trends, the history and politics of the hijab/veil, as well as differing interpretations, and the fear in regards to the hijab/veil.
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| Stara, The Hijab Series |
I also want to be careful not to fuel the stereotypical widespread negative images most commonly portrayed about the hijab/veil in the Western media, especially the notion that most or all women who wear the hijab/veil, are weak, oppressed, ignorant, and backwards.
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| veiled & stitched, on Instagram |
Furthermore, I hope to challenge and look at both Western and Middle Eastern stereotypes, fears, and ideas regarding the veil.
Tens of thousands of people in Afghanistan waited nervously on Saturday to see whether the United States would deliver on President Joe Biden’s new pledge to evacuate all Americans and all Afghans who aided the war effort. ~ Associated Press, 21 Aug 2021
The world prays for peace and safety in the aftermath of all this.
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| Lashkar Gah, Helmand province, southwestern, Afghanistan Saturday, Aug. 21, 2021. (AP Photo/Abdul Khaliq) |
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