At the core of the project “Meet an Arab Woman” is the possibility of having an open-minded conversation with people arising from questions they want to ask me or issues they want me to address about being an Arab woman and including questions about our identity, our culture, political correctness, stereotypes to simply who makes the greatest falafel! It challenges the preconceptions of women from the Middle East via video call, then this information was transformed into a visual art project.
The conversations –fourteen over six weeks – undertaken by video call have allowed me to challenge the many presumptions people have about Arab Women which, unfortunately, they mostly receive through the media which characterises us as weak, oppressed and controlled. This is not to say that some of these characterisations are not true, some of us of course struggle with these.
Yet, the aim of this project is to ask people to see us as individuals rather than as a generic body. We all have our own stories, struggles, and achievements and we should be able to speak about these and share them without prior and presumptuous judgment. In this project,
I want people not only to see me as an Arab woman but also acknowledge the similarities we have despite our different identities. Over six weeks of this project, I have had intimate conversations with strangers in which we were both vulnerable about our journeys, ignorance, and identities.
The project was divided into 3 sections:
1- Creating the banner
2- Conversations with Strangers
3- Zine
You have a burning question or want to take part in the open-minded debate? I will be still hosting a video conversation once a month, to get in touch please sign up on HERE
You can now get a digital copy of the zine and submit your drawing/painting, just get in touch.
Humanistics 