By Gihan Hafez
“I hope that my art might challenge the narrow perceptions of
Muslims.” – Saba Barnard
My piece of art
is called True Colors. True Colors expresses the stereotypes
found for Muslim women on the Internet. The top of my piece includes photos of Muslim
women from all around the world. Under it is the Internet symbol to signify the
role of the media, and then follows pictures of veiled women.
My idea is to
show how Muslim women are portrayed in the media, how narrow-minded people
become about the image of a Muslim woman. As you can see, the top part of my
piece shows women from different backgrounds, ethnicity, culture, race and
nationality. I wanted to show the diversity of Muslim woman. I used the Wi-Fi
symbol to represent a funnel/filter that these women go through in the media
and what it results. It has Kufic Islamic inscriptions to represent Islam. It
is obvious how happy and colorful the Muslim women are compared to the veiled
stereotypes. I came up with this idea as I was searching for women in Islam,
and on Google, as I searched “Muslim Women” I got results with a page full of
veiled women, some abused, some protesting. This disappointed me as it made me
think how people around the world perceive us; they don’t know the real us.
Dubai is the perfect country for this example, it is full of a diversity of
Muslim women, just by taking a walk in the street, you can find several types
of Muslim women and this is one of the most things that fascinate me about this
city. Why are we shown this way in the Internet? It is sad that I, a Muslim
woman, cannot relate to even one photo that is displayed in Google images. I
have nothing against veiled women I respect them, but are we not considered
Muslim women just because of our choice of cover or clothing? Islam is not all
about veiling, it is about peace, about diversity, about knowledge and these
images portray none of that. Why does the media butcher our religion? Why can’t
we be shown for who we are, the way other religions are shown?
As I saw these
images, I began to research to find other people who talk or express about this
topic. I found a particular artist called Saba Barnard. Barnard is a Muslim
Pakistani artist born and raised in America. She inspired me and made me see
everything differently. Barnard is known for her portraits of Muslim women.
However, the way she portrays them is very interesting. About her series of
portraits “An-Noor” she said “I hope that
the paintings reflect more of a fluid identity, one that includes elements from
Eastern and Western cultures, the old and the new, the masculine and the
feminine all in one image.” Barnard loves to display the diversity of women
with colors; this inspired me to do my piece.
Doing this
piece I used a collage technique by cropping and putting photos together, I
also added textures and patterns using software. The dimensions of my piece are
59.4cm x 84.1cm (A1). I named it True Colors as I explored and portrayed the
true side of women in Islam.
My name is
Gihan Hafez, I am a Muslim Egyptian woman and I believe in honesty and truth,
which is why I was offended by this media portrayal. I hope in the future this
narrow-minded image of us changes in the media and in the minds of other
civilizations.
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