7 Boundary-Pushing Artists Challenging Stereotypes of Women from the Middle East and Beyond

Middle Eastern women have long been subject to persistent stereotypes in the West. A new show, “Women Defining Women in Contemporary Art of the Middle East and Beyond,” currently on view at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art through September 24th, hopes to act as a corrective.

The featured artists are all aiming to fashion definitions of self, and challenge the idea that they are voiceless and invisible, in their own individual ways. “American stereotypes are informed by American misogyny,” said the show’s curator, Linda Komaroff. “I wanted to use what the artists are doing to change American preconceptions, but I also wanted it to be kind of a wake-up call to American women. We’re not so different. It’s an illusion, I think, in America that women are free and equal to men.”

At the same time, Komaroff is hoping the exhibition will attract and inspire a younger audience, especially those who may feel marginalized by their gender, faith, ethnicity, or race. “They can go to this exhibition and see themselves, or they can relate to the names of the artists or where they come from,” said Komaroff.

A downloadable guide also means that the powerful, thought-provoking artworks can be accessed by a global audience of women, who have more in common than they may think. “We’re all kind of in the same boat,” said Komaroff. “It’s about the cultural entrenchment of patriarchal views.”

Here, we look at seven works in the exhibition by female artists from the Middle East who challenge the narrow definitions which are so often imposed upon them.

Rania Matar, Iman, Griffith Park, 2022

This portrait by Lebanese photographer Rania Matar of actress Iman Vellani—best known for playing superhero Ms. Marvel in the eponymous television series—was commissioned specially for the exhibition. As the first female Muslim superhero, Ms. Marvel has given young Muslim women the ability to see themselves represented in popular media.

Vellani liked the idea of Matar’s practice, which is focused on girls and young women. The artist encourages her subjects to choose how they’re going to pose and what they’re going to wear, so she can be allowed to reveal how they see themselves. For the photoshoot, Vellani brought along her grandfather’s camera and some of the photographs he took with it from the time the family lived in Pakistan, including some of Vellani’s mother when she was her age.

Newsha Tavakolian, Untitled, 2011, from the series “Listen”

Newsha Tavakolian’s engaging, vibrant images document women who are battling against—or subverting—gender-based restrictions in her native Iran. The photographic series “Listen” was conceived as a group of imaginary CD covers for fantasy albums by female singers who have been forbidden to perform in public since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

The entire series is about defiance and resilience, revealing how women are refusing to be silent and invisible. At a time when young women in Iran are courageously rebelling against the enforced wearing of the hijab, this particular image went viral on social media as a symbol of their struggle.

Almagul Menlibayeva, Red Butterfly, 2012

In Red Butterfly (2012), photographer Almagual Menlibayeva references her native Kazakhstan by posing her model before the mausoleum of Aisha Bibi. Located near the city of Taraz, the mausoleum is popularly associated with the Kazakh legend of Aisha Bibi, a young woman who disobeyed her stepfather and fled her home in order to be with the man she loved.

The 21st-century rebel represented in Menlibayeva’s photograph wears a headdress comprised of traditionally male hats, perhaps scalps of the men who have failed to control her. While her body may be enveloped in layers of red fabric, her powerful gaze leaves us in little doubt that she is about to burst free from her cocoon and fly away to live her chosen life, far from patriarchal control.

Tal Shochat, Rumia, 2013

Rumia (2013) is Israeli artist Tal Shochat’s somewhat satirical response to the European Orientalist paintings of the 19th century, which frequently depicted a sexualized Western fantasy version of “oriental” women. Such paintings generally feature women in supine or vulnerable positions.

Shochat, in contrast, brazenly meets the viewer’s gaze as she clasps lemons to her naked breasts while standing in a niche of the Rockefeller Archaeological Museum in Jerusalem, where the image was surreptitiously taken. Lines of Persian poetry by the celebrated feminist and humanist poet Forough Farrokhzad are framed below the image, in reference to Shochat’s Iranian heritage.

Lalla Essaydi, Harem #2, 2009

Moroccan-born Lalla Essaydi’s Harem #2 (2009) also responds to Orientalist painting, specifically the figure of the reclining odalisque. With this image, Essaydi is commenting on the way women are frequently seen as merely decorative objects.

Taken in Dar al-Basha—a lavishly decorated early 20th-century palace in Marrakech—the work depicts a reclining woman clothed in and surrounded by fabric that replicates the colorful zellij mosaic tile patterns of the building, effectively camouflaging her. However, the model’s skin is intricately inscribed in Arabic with henna, dye traditionally used by Moroccan women for celebratory occasions. She may be hidden, but the words that are written on her body indicate her refusal to remain silent.

Raeda Saadeh, Vacuum, 2007

Raeda Saadeh’s work often focuses on the lives of Palestinian women, revealing the impact of Israeli occupation on their daily lives and psyches. In her two-channel video installation Vacuum (2007), she filmed herself vacuuming the desert sand in the hillsides around the Dead Sea.

Although it seems to be a futile task, it can also be seen as suggesting hope in the face of a seemingly insurmountable problem—or as a more universal comment on the mindlessness of the domestic roles frequently imposed upon women in patriarchal societies.

Hayv Kahraman, Search, 2016