Fotoprojekt widerspricht Klischee von unterdrückter arabischer Frau

An Iraqi woman dons a black hijab but bares her thighs. A Lebanese woman wearing a sheer blouse curls up on a bed, both innocent and seductive. An attractive young Iranian couple shares breakfast at a small table, seemingly oblivious to the tank looming just a few yards away.

There are no harems, belly dancers, or male oppressors in this photography show, nor any of the other Middle Eastern stereotypes that Westerners generally associate with that far away, often misunderstood, region.

(...) “She Who Tells a Story,” a photo exhibit now showing at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts and headed to other U.S. museums, features the work of 12 women from the Middle East who shatter stereotypes with works that are provocative, beautiful, mysterious, and surprising, all at the same time.

Giacomo Voorhees, who serves in the Navy in San Diego but was recently in Boston where he grew up, saw the exhibit with his grandparents. “I think we generalize about women there being oppressed and not having a voice, but these photos show that’s not exactly always true,” he said.

(...) “Like any woman in the world, Arab women certainly have specific difficulties that they face,” said Essaydi, who explained that her triptych refers to the role that Arab women played during the Arab Spring. “But they are not debilitating. Arab women are not universally oppressed, subjugated, or depressed. Their lives are no more to be defined by stereotypes than anyone else’s.”

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(Ich gebe zu, dass die aktuellen Genderama-Beiträge nicht gerade vor Brisanz sprudeln. Der Januar ist normalerweise ein nachrichtenarmer Monat, was die klassischen Medien gerne durch Pseudoskandale zu überwinden versuchen: vorletztes Jahr die Affäre um Christian Wulff, letztes Jahr der #Aufschrei. Dazu habe ich aber keine Lust.)