{"id":34845,"date":"2017-09-12T11:58:25","date_gmt":"2017-09-12T15:58:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=34845"},"modified":"2018-01-25T09:06:18","modified_gmt":"2018-01-25T14:06:18","slug":"saudi-graduate-student-asks-non-muslim-women-portrait-viewers-move-past-veil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/saudi-graduate-student-asks-non-muslim-women-portrait-viewers-move-past-veil\/","title":{"rendered":"Saudi graduate student asks non-Muslim women \u2013 and portrait viewers \u2013 to move past the veil"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor’s note:<\/strong> Nourah Alhasawi’s exhibit titled “The Oppression of (Not) Being Seen” can be viewed Jan. 19-Feb. 28, 2018, in the Prism Gallery, bottom floor of Festival Hall, at James Madison University. A reception will be Saturday, Feb. 3, at 10 a.m. in the Highlands Room, with the artist appearing via Skype. (Visitors parking across the street from the Festival Hall is free on weekends.)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Nourah Alhasawi invites viewers to confront their preconceived notions about face-veiled Muslim women. Not as an American, or a Christian, or a member of any demographic \u2013 but as one person to another.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Frances Flannery (right), director of James Madison University’s Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Terrorism and Peace, with Trina Trotter Nussbaum, associate director of EMU’s Center for Interfaith Engagement, at the gallery.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Alhasawi is a professor of Islamic Studies at Princess Nourah University in her home country of Saudi Arabia. She also wears a face veil.<\/p>\n

For her capstone project to earn a master\u2019s degree in conflict transformation at Eastern Mennonite University\u2019s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding<\/a>, Alhasawi gathered 20 women and interviewed them on their feelings about face veils. Then, each participant was photographed in various stages of the veiling process \u2013 unveiled, partially covering the hair, fully covering the hair, wearing a colorful face veil, and wearing a plain black face veil. Each participant was again interviewed about their experience, and some met for group discussion.<\/p>\n

The Margaret Martin Gehman Art Gallery was filled to capacity for Alhasawi\u2019s presentation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese women are not terrorists \u2026 they are not even Muslim,\u201d she told the crowd.<\/p>\n

For the presentation, Alhasawi hung twenty hinged portraits in the gallery \u2013 the viewer first encountered a fully veiled woman, eyes appearing somber or powerful, a few mischievous \u2013 then \u201copened\u201d the portrait to reveal the subject with only partially covered hair.<\/p>\n

In America, Alhasawi says, \u201cThe more visible my face-veil is, the more invisible I become.\u201d In light of the invisibility, harassment\u00a0 and oppression she endured as a face-veiled Muslim woman in America, she created this project with the hope that viewers would set down their cultural baggage and encounter the portrait subjects as individuals.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Viewers in the Margaret Martin Gehman Gallery.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not about systems, it\u2019s not about ideology, it\u2019s about you and me,\u201d says Alhasawi. She explained the various \u201cproblematic responses to difference\u201d that people exhibit: acting as if the \u201cother\u201d has no personhood, demonizing and dominating the \u201cother,\u201d and portraying the \u201cother\u201d as exotic and therefore not dignified. Alhasawi also pointed out a problematic response that can stem from a desire for equality: minimizing the other\u2019s differences.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t see my difference, then you don\u2019t see me. Or you don\u2019t see me fully,\u201d says Alhasawi. She pointed out that unveiled faces are not a universal norm: she had to become accustomed to seeing American clothing (and lack thereof).<\/p>\n

Alhasawi also explained the danger of moral overcorrection: according to a Pew Research Center study<\/a>, only 12 countries in the world legally require some form of religious garb for women, while 39 countries legally prohibit some form of the same. \u201cThey have this assumption that women would only wear this by force, so they force them not to wear it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNourah is a social entrepreneur, willing to take risks and cross her comfort zones,\u201d says Professor Carl Stauffer, her practicum and academic advisor. She also enlisted the help of Howard Zehr, Soula Pefkaros, and Adriana Hammond to photograph the subjects of this social experiment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe overcame so many things in less than an hour,\u201d says Alhasawi. One participant first described women in black face veils as \u201cscary,\u201d but closed their last interview by presenting Alhasawi with a gift of a black scarf.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt made me think much more about myself than it did face-veiled Muslim women,\u201d says participant Frances Flannery, director of the Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Terrorism and Peace<\/a> at James Madison University. The project made Flannery reflect on society\u2019s \u201cclaims\u201d on women \u2013 such as how they should appear and express themselves \u2013 characteristics which are covered by a face veil.<\/p>\n

Alhasawi hopes there will be other opportunities to display the photographs in the United States, and intends to write further about the project\u2019s implications. She has returned to Saudi Arabia to teach two graduate classes and continue research projects on women\u2019s rights and English-language representations of the prophet of Islam.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor’s note: Nourah Alhasawi’s exhibit titled “The Oppression of (Not) Being Seen” can be viewed Jan. 19-Feb. 28, 2018, in the Prism Gallery, bottom floor of Festival Hall, at James ... read more about Saudi graduate student asks non-Muslim women \u2013 and portrait viewers \u2013 to move past the veil<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34846,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7931,12503,17562],"tags":[13825,5974,13839],"feature":[17427,17424,17426,17241],"class_list":["post-34845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-cjp","category-digest","tag-carl-stauffer","tag-howard-zehr","tag-margaret-martin-gehman-art-gallery","feature-emu-home-page-feature","feature-featured-graduate","feature-myemu-feature","feature-news-feature"],"yoast_head":"\nSaudi graduate student asks non-Muslim women \u2013 and portrait viewers \u2013 to move past the veil - 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