Exhibit Gives Voice to Women Artists From the Arab Gulf Region

In Bahrain-based artist Noora Alhashimi’s “The Female Matrix,” she draws a woman disfigured and trapped into a matrix. She describes the digital painting as “a satirical take on the expectations and boundaries imposed on women, meant to silence them after they are sexually harassed.”

“The Arab woman’s matrix condenses her into an object,” she says, “forbidding her from taking up space or simply fighting back.”

Alhashimi’s work is part of a recently concluded digital art exhibition, “Enough Is Enough,” hosted by the Khaleeji Art Museum, a digital museum that promotes the work of emerging artists from the Arab Gulf region. Using a variety of mediums, 12 female artists made strong symbolic statements on sexual harassment and assault in the region.

Alhashimi’s work focuses on how surroundings shape identity and particularly how she perceives the world through her body and being: “the mold that we are put into … how much of it affects our decision making, behavior, and eventually, how we view ourselves.”

“It’s a heavy topic and there’s no humor to it really. It’s a satirical take — I wanted to make the woman a literal object, as a lot of times that is what women are reduced to,” she explains. Another way to interpret this artwork is how, as a coping mechanism, victims may revert inward and feel a loss of identity, she adds.

While the Khaleeji Art Museum itself is a new initiative, founded about a year ago, it has gained a lot of attention during the pandemic. “It was interesting to see this topic on a mainstream platform,” says Alhashimi. “In a small country like Bahrain, talking about it creates a dialogue … and that’s how change really begins.”

Alhashimi recalls how her father was curious to hear more about the exhibition. “My father is someone who believes in equality, but we never really talk about these things. It makes people think that it’s OK to talk about it, which is a huge thing on its own.”

The exhibition coincided with Kuwait’s ongoing #LanAsket movement (“I will not be silenced”). The movement works to raise awareness and pass laws to protect women from gender-based violence and harassment, and Alhashimi believes that concurrent discourses like the exhibition help amplify the movement.

Kuwait-based photographer and mixed-media artist Maha Asaker uses art as a medium of education and resistance to raise awareness. At the exhibition, she presented a series of self-portraits to express, she says, “how I feel with my own body. Always trapped, never free.”

“My body belongs to my last name and my family’s honor,” Asaker explains. “From a very early age, I am told that I need to cover up. And because it is hidden, it has become a sexual thing. I wanted to talk about this sexualization of the body.”

The irony of the situation is that when harassed, her body is blamed. She uses delicate fabric, sensuous fruit, and fragile glass objects to create the dichotomy of a trap, the tension of “seeing and not seeing, covering and not covering.”

Speaking on sexual harassment and assault in the region, Asaker says that firstly, the woman is shamed (for what she was wearing, for being romantically involved with the harasser). Then, her privileges (to travel, to work) are taken away by the family.

“So what do they do? They shush.”

“We are a culture that doesn’t speak about these things, we pretend. We say: ‘Khalas, let it go.’”

Having spent six years in the U.S., Asaker believes the conversation is different in the West because women are relatively more aware of their rights. Art is a way of bringing these issues to the forefront of public conscience, and Asaker is currently collaborating with others in the #LanAsket movement to curate an online art exhibition that aims to educate women on their rights.

“When you see something visual, it grabs your attention and you start thinking about it. It provides an affirmation for people,” she adds.

While family members have unfollowed her on Instagram and objected to her art more than once, Asaker acknowledges her privilege to even speak out, but continues to push things with difficult conversations.

In the wake of #LanAsket, Bahrain-based artist Huda Jamal created an oil painting that depicts “harassment in a parallel universe.” Jamal collected several tweets that blamed harassment on women’s attire or implied that women seek out attention.

Her painting features an image of a newspaper with the same tweets and the same accusations, but directed at men. “My intention was to flip the narrative and provoke viewers to think about the double standards in how society treats men and women,” she says.

“It seems normal to accuse women, but somehow seems ‘off’ to direct these accusations to men. The artwork is a mockery of those misogynist tweets.”

Since posting this painting on Instagram, Jamal has received several messages from women who have come forward with their experiences of harassment. “When you interact with a person who understands the importance of the issue, you feel comfortable sharing and don’t have to carry the weight of the incident alone,” she says.

Speaking of the region, Jamal echoes Asaker’s comments — sexual assault and harassment is not taken seriously in the Arab Gulf countries, and victims often try to shove it under the rug because they fear being stigmatized or bringing dishonor to the family.

“Previous generations have been in denial about the existence of these issues. It is just now that people are starting to open up — especially on social media. Maybe in the near future, this dialogue can enable practical solutions, like going to the court or having laws in place.”