Behind The Veil

[MA-Caver]

Exhibit aims to shatter US stereotypes of Islam
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080703/ap_en_ot/breaking_the_veils
By ANDREW DeMILLO, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 54 minutes ago

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - In the months following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Princess Wijdan Al Hashemi and her friend Aliki Moschis-Gauguet noticed that the only depictions they saw of Muslim women showed figures behind veils, oppressed by their cultures.
Moschis-Gauget said, "'Do you see what's going on the media?... Muslim women are being portrayed as women living behind long veils,'" said Al Hashemi, founder and director of the Royal Society of Fine Arts of Jordan. "She couldn't stand the way Muslim and Arab women were being portrayed."
Al Hashemi and Moschis-Gauguet, president of the Pan-Mediterranean Women Artists Network, turned to the world they knew best to find an answer: the world of art.
To combat what they saw as misperceptions about the Muslim world and Arab nations, the two women teamed up to create a traveling exhibit featuring female artists from Islamic countries. The show "Breaking the Veils: Women Artists From the Islamic World" began its three-year United States tour at the Clinton Presidential Library, where it will be on view through Sept. 14.
The exhibit features works by 52 women from 21 Islamic countries, from Algeria to Yemen. It previously toured 15 European cities and Australia.

This I think would be a very important exhibit indeed. One worth visiting/seeing. While information from the media seems to only portray Muslim women in the negative, how they are treated by the men or how they're being used as human bombs, etc. I had a feeling that there's a lot more to them than just hiding behind burkas and veils. The exhibit, put on by a princess no less, hopes to break the stereotype. Something I think we all need to do.

 

[Sukerkin]

Quite so, Caver.

There was a series on the BBC a few months ago that set out with exactly the same aim. The 'presenter' was a young British Muslim woman who went to visit various countries to show what life for women was really like there. The one where she returned to her 'roots' in Yemen and visit her relatives there was especially good I felt. You certainly did not get the impression that women were particularly downtrodden.

In fact the only place where that sense became apparent was when they visited what amounted to a drugs market. Apparently only women of what we used to call 'loose virtue' go to these places and the response of the men there was what you would expect under those circumstances - not pleasant.

Anyhow, the series was called "Women in Black" and may well be available for download or purchase from the BBC.

 

[harlan]

Understanding runs both ways. I expect they will understand they can't come into my bank unless they lift it, and not cry foul about being refused service.