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Redress: gender and power in Saudi Arabian art
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Redress: gender and power in Saudi Arabian art
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Content
Redress:
Gender and Power in Saudi Arabian Art
by
Loujain Bager
A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC ROSKI SCHOOL OF ART AND DESIGN
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS
CURATORIAL PRACTICES AND THE PUBLIC SPHERE
May 2020
i
Acknowledgments
It was an honor to write about the artists in this paper; I appreciate them
and their practices deeply. Thank you to the artists for answering all my
questions and for trusting me to pen this response about them, and most of
all, for all the magical artwork they have created.
Hend Al-Mansour, Ms Saffaa, Abdulaziz Al-Qahtani, Manal Al Dowayan, and
Balqis Al-Rashed.
To my fellow Saudi artists, activists, scholars, and dreamers for their much
needed inspiration and encouragement.
To the numerous Professors and scholars that have inspired, guided, and
encouraged me, including and not limited to: Alpesh Patel, Andrew
Campbell, Amelia Jones, Karen Moss, Jenny Lin, Sherin Guirguis.
To my ancestors, my mother Nancy Cruz, my father Abdulhamid Bager, my
siblings Arwa, Jasmine, and Mohammed, our cats Eva and Banes for all the
love, support and believing in me
To my friends who are chosen family for all the support and care and for
always being there for me especially to these individuals: Amal, Peanut,
Pouneh, El, Kt, Elias, Nymeria, Teddy, Julio, Omar, Leo, Johnny, Lisa, Zeli,
Casey, Alexis, Paulson, Dulce, Zeina, Rudy, Ana, Alex, Safiyah, Rory, Layla,
Asiya, Baggy, Turtle, Deeb, Qais, Raneen and Jafar. Thank you to all the
other loved ones that reached out and offered softness, I may have not
mentioned you by name but this would not have been possible without you.
Thank you to my cohort for all the support Eve Moeykens-Arballo, Bianca M.
Morán, Carlo Tuason and Joseph Daniel Valencia.
ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments i
List of Figures iii
Abstract iv
Introduction 1
Hend Al-Mansour’s Facebook Project 11
MsSaffaa I Am My Own Guardian 18
Abdulaziz Al-Qahtani An Intimate Geography 25
Manal Al Dowayan 30
Balqis Al-Rashed 34
Conclusion 40
Image Appendix 42
Bibliography 50
iii
List of Figures:
1.1 Facebook-1 (2013) 42
1.2 Facebook-2 (2014) 43
1.3 Screenshot of artist's Instagram of what was Facebook-3 44
1.4 Screenshot of the series at the Sydney College of the Arts
undergrad degree show 44
1.5 I Am My Own Guardian (2012) 45
1.6 Pride and Groom (2010) 46
1.7 Feminism (2010) 47
1.8 Esmi (my name) (2012) 47
1.9 Suspended Together (2011) 48
2.1 Tree of Guardians (2014) 48
2.2 Crash 2014 49
2.3 A State of Play (2015) 49
2.4 Norms of Life (2019) 49
iv
Abstract
This thesis concerns itself with artworks created before the recent political
reforms towards the guardianship system in Saudi Arabia. The guardianship
system was built upon a series of fatwas (religious opinions) in the 1980s.
The guardianship system ensured that Saudi women must abide by their
male guardian who is a close male relative. Women were required to seek
out permission for mobility, marriage, work, education, and travel. There
have been numerous laws in response to the guardian system and the ease
of restrictions towards Saudi women. This thesis historicizes select works
created by Hend Al-Mansour, MsSaffaa, Abdulaziz Al-Qahtani, Manal Al
Dowayan, and Balqis Al-Rashid. The bodies of works selected vary in media
and address gender dynamics by using cultural symbolism.
1
Redress:
Gender and Power in Saudi Arabian Art
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has had many political changes in recent
years including an ease in restrictions towards its guardianship system. This
custodial system is a far-reaching mandate wherein, “Saudi women remain
under the guardianship of their male relatives, who control their mobility,
marriage, work, and education.”
1
The system was built upon a series of
fatwas (religious opinions) in the 1980s. In the religious nationalistic
country, fatwas are held in high regard, and are considered comparable to a
legal ruling. The numerous changes introduced included allowing women to
vote in the 2015 local elections, a decree by King Abdullah Al-Saud in 2011
where it was ordered that women were to be allowed access to government
services such as education and healthcare without obtaining her male
guardian's permission, King Salman lifted the driving ban in 2017 that
previously prohibited women from being able to drive in the country, and in
2019 women were granted the right to travel at the age of 21 without
requiring their guardian's permission. Established in 1932 by the Al-Saud
family, Saudi Arabia is still younger than a hundred years old as a country.
King Abdulaziz gained control of the country through a series of conquests
1
Madawi Al-Rasheed, A Most Masculine State (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2013), Kindle, 15.
2
across the Arabian peninsula that spanned many years 1905, 1921, 1924.
2
The Al-Saud family intended to reestablish a unified religious nation under
Wahhabi Islam, a sect considered to be one of the most conservative and
restrictive within the Islamic tradition. As a consequence, Saudi Arabia has
integrated sharia (Islamic law) into all aspects of everyday life. Its citizens
must abide by Wahhabi beliefs, including the numerous restrictions on Saudi
women. In 1982, a policy statement issued by King Fahd ibn Abd al-Aziz al-
Saud’s government ushered in a new era of censorship and control by
decreeing all media must refrain from criticizing Islam or the royal family,
oppose atheism, promote Saudi Arabia’s interests, and preserve the cultural
heritage of the Kingdom.
3
Foreign publications and advertisements are not
exempt, and they are often censored or banned. Although this policy is still
in place in the country, cinemas became allowed in 2018 after a 35 year
ban; other art incentives have been established, such as The King Abdulaziz
Center for World Culture (also known as Ithra), which opened in 2017 and
includes a museum, children’s museum, library, cinema, theater, and
exhibition halls. Jeddah art week was established in 2013, art hubs and
artist-run spaces have been established in different cities in the country, and
2
Pike, John. “Military.” King Abdul Aziz Bin Abdul Rahman Al-Saud. Accessed March 23,
2020. https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/gulf/abdulaziz.htm.
3
“Saudi Arabia,” Human Rights Watch, accessed March 10, 2020,
https://www.hrw.org/legacy/wr2k/Mena-08.htm.
3
in 2020 Desert X AlUla took place. These are a few examples of the cultural
initiatives and projects that have been taking place inside the Kingdom.
The shift in Wahhabi Islamic teachings established a profound
conservatism in the country and its citizens that restricted artistic scenes
from the public. Growing up in Saudi Arabia during the early 2000s, my
experience seeing art was not in a museum exhibition setting, but in select
cafes and restaurants that doubled as spaces to showcase artworks on their
walls, and sometimes including wedding and multipurpose halls which could
be rented for exhibitions. The museum I often visited in my youth in my
hometown of Dhahran was a natural history museum and was dedicated to
focusing on oil (a precious commodity and one of the main exports of the
region), but it also included geogrpahy and nationalistic history. The
museum was sponsored by government agencies and the Saudi Aramco oil
company. The art scene is expanding in the country as are reforms towards
the guardianship system. With all the changes rapidly being implemented in
society, it is important to acknowledge the history that preceded the
reforms, and it is my intention as an art historian and scholar to historize
selected Saudi contemporary artists and their works that examine and
critique the guardianship system and gendered roles in the kingdom. The
artworks included in this thesis were created before the recent changes to
the laws and gendered roles in the kingdom.
4
The featured artists are almost all women, and include Ms Saffaa,
Hend Al-Mansour, Balqis Al-Rashed, and Manal Al Dowayan, with the
exception of Abdulaziz al-Qahtani, who is male. Western European and North
American focused art history often neglects including these contemporary
artists in its scholarship. This thesis focuses on a majority of women artists
as women are the ones directly affected by the guardianship system and
gender inequalities that were part of society. Many of the artists were raised
in Saudi Arabia but currently live abroad in foreign countries, while many
who live in the Kingdom choose to travel often. This allows them to explore,
reflect upon, and challenge gender roles in relation to the state. The work
produced by these artists spans a range of mediums, including but not
limited to: silkscreen, performance art, photography, and sculpture. The
artists also challenge and question the patriarchal system that is in place in
Saudi Arabia that is inherently part of their upbringing and identity, often
reflecting upon history and centering powerful women in their artwork. This
is achieved by using cultural signifiers, such as using Saudi’s nationalistic
dress that is heavily binary to highlight gender issues within society. In
Saudi Arabia, all schools (excluding international schools) are segregated by
gender. With the primary school curriculum in Saudi having a strong
emphasis on religious studies, students learn at an early age and are
reminded often that Islam was founded in the country.
5
I vividly remember being a student in elementary school in Saudi
Arabia and being introduced to a myriad of influential and powerful historical
Muslim women like Khadija bint Khuwaylid, the first person to accept and
convert to Islam. Khadija, a successful merchant of Quraysh's trade caravan,
employed the Prophet Mohammed to her business whom she later married.
Learning about women like Khadija bint Khuwaylid, and the wives and
daughters of the prophet was very much a part of school curriculum. In the
time of the Prophet Mohammed, women held their own professions, were
able to ride their camels and horses freely, and fought alongside the men in
battles. The Battle of the Camel, also known as the Battle of Jamel or the
Battle of Basra, is a religious story of one such conflict.
As it was told, Aisha bint Abi Bakr, another wife of the Prophet
Mohammed, and her party of women dressed in men’s clothing traveled to
shield themselves from attack from opposing tribes. They were accompanied
by only one man, Ali ibn Abi Talab, cousin and son-in-law of the prophet.
The details of who was in the battle and the reasons for its instigation have
become a blur in my mind, but the detail that stuck with me was that
strategy of women dressing as men and being recognized as such to protect
themselves from incoming attacks.
Even as a child, I reflected upon how much this has changed in
society—or not; my religious teacher told us that she used to crossdress in
men’s clothes so that she could walk freely and go to the store to buy items
6
without the accompaniment of her guardian. But upon reflection, my teacher
confessed that she regretted her decision to dress as a man because it was
immoral to take the likeness of the opposite sex reserved to only certain
circumstances such as in battle.
My teacher was not alone in dressing the way she did in public spaces;
many women also dressed in men’s clothing to access public spaces
otherwise denied to them without their male guardians. An example of this
was some women who disguised themselves as men to attend soccer
matches; women were banned from attending until 2018 when the ban was
lifted. These women decide to dress like men because of the circumstances
in the country preventing them from accessing certain spaces in the public
realm. The distinct gendered clothing in Saudi Arabia allows for men to be
associated with the national dress of the shemagh and thob while women
wear the traditional black abaya. There are cases I heard of while living in
Saudi Arabia of men who dress in the abaya, hijab, and niqab to go
unnoticed while mingling with the opposite sex in public which remained
heavily segregated. The punishment when caught varied, but an arrest of
the person caught is expected, such as in the case of the Saudi woman
whose name was not publicised was arrested in 2014 because she attended
a soccer match in the Kingdom dressed in men’s clothing.
4
It was four years
4
“Saudi Woman Arrested for Attending Football Match in Riyadh,” The Guardian, accessed
March 10, 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/15/saudi-woman-arrested-
football-match.
7
after the arrest, in 2018 when the ban on women attending soccer matches
was lifted in Saudi Arabia, and the audiences became gender segregated
audiences. The woman who got arrested for attending the soccer match and
my teacher are only some examples of women who attempted to dress as a
man in public.
Another similar case was Saudi Princess Misheal bint Fahd bin
Mohammed Al Saud. In July 1997, Saudi Princess Mishael Al Saud and her
lover, Khalid Mahallal, the nephew of the Saudi ambassador in Lebanon,
were tragically executed in a public square after Friday prayer after and
attempt to elope—with the married princess disguised as a man—they were
intercepted at the airport and charged with the crime of adultery. The story
was included in a British 1980 drama-documentary titled Death of a Princess
and was produced by ATV in cooperation with WGBH in the United States.
The docudrama was very controversial at the time it was released and
remains so and therefore is rarely broadcasted. The scandalous tale of the
princess and her lover caused the Saudi state to take on the role of protector
of women and their honor, which is the equivalent of a father’s (and other
male guardians’) responsibility.
In the aftermath of Mishael bint Fahd bin Mohammed Al Saud and
Khalid Mahallal’s joint execution, there was an increase in legislation and
fatwas banning women who are unaccompanied (or did not have permission
8
from their guardian) from traveling abroad.
5
Driving was also banned for
women, and public and private spaces were compelled to adhere to sex
segregation. The mutawa (religious police) were put in place to roam the
streets so that they might monitor both men and women’s behavior and
dress to make sure it meets the acceptable moral standards. The Saudi
dress code is cultural and religiously motivated with the women wearing the
traditional abaya, which is a black cloak. It was a requirement for women to
be dressed in the black abaya while in public until 2018, when there was a
royal decree that women should be able to dress however they want as long
as it abides by the modesty standard of the Islamic religion.
6
The men in the
region typically wear the traditional white thob; the differentiation of the
colors distinguishes the genders. Madawi Al-Rasheed, a scholar of Saudi
Arabia, describes it as:
When in public, women should never wear white clothes if
such attire is the prerogative of the men of the country, lest they
be seen as imitating them and confusing gender; hence the
persistence of the black abaya, which is not only a cultural code
of dress but has also attained a religious significance.
Notwithstanding the fact that nothing in Islamic sources specifies
the colour of women's clothes, Saudi scholars have elevated black
to the rank of a religious obligation. The colours black and white
in the public sphere have become national symbols, similar to the
5
Madawi Al-Rasheed, A Most Masculine State (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2013), Kindle, 100.
6
Stephen Kalin, “Saudi Women to Be Allowed a Choice in Their Public Clothing,”
Independent, accessed March 10, 2020 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-
east/saudi-arabia-women-abaya-head-cover-crown-prince-muhammad-bin-salman-
a8263446.html.
9
country's flag; both imply religious inscriptions, signs of the piety
of the state and nation.
7
This cultural and religious code of dress is therefore normalized. In Judith
Butler’s Undoing Gender she writes: “If gender is a kind of a doing, an
incessant activity performed, in part, without one’s knowing and without
one’s willing, it is not for that reason automatic or mechanical.”
8
The gendered binary roles were so deeply expected in society that the
majority of people would consider things such as the dress code as
something that is the norm.
I remember being in school and managing two competing obligations:
needing to wear my school uniform while on school grounds and needing to
wear the traditional black abaya and headscarf while waiting for my driver to
pick me up. I recall one of my classmates who wore a hijab asking my
teacher if women during the time of the prophet used to cover their hair,
and the teacher telling us that indeed women covered their hair even
predating Islam and that the different styles represented status and prestige
while the symbolism of the hijab is to show modesty. As a child, I remember
thinking about the women in the Battle of the Camel, and how empowered
they seemed. The women of that time period did not need to adhere to the
restrictions imposed by a guardian’s rule—they roamed around freely and
7
Madawi Al-Rasheed, A Most Masculine State (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2013), Kindle, 116.
8
Judith Butler, Undoing Gender (London: Routledge, 2004), 2, ProQuest Ebrary.
10
independently made their own decisions. Khadija bint Khuwaylid not only
employed the prophet Mohammed but also requested his hand in marriage;
many Suadi women look to Khadija bint Khuwaylid and other historical
women figures as examples of strong women. I remember being a schoolgirl
and thinking that women such as Khadija were able to roam around and
drive themselves on camels and horses and did not need a driver to usher
them around. The Kingdom is the only country in the world to have barred
women from driving; it was only in 2017 that a royal decree lifted the ban.
One year later, the decree was fully implemented, ostensibly granting
women more mobility and autonomy independent of their male guardian, or
wali.
Years later, entering college in the United States, I remember
requesting a shemagh from my father, an item of clothing that is usually
reserved for and worn only by Arab men. I wanted the shemagh to provide
me with warmth, and to remind me of home. This shemagh became one of
my most prized possessions because it embodied the strength of the women
in the religious historical tales that I valued as a child, and also reminded me
of all the Saudi women, including myself, who were working towards change.
I did not want the shemagh to imitate or be like a man but rather to break
down the binaries of what women are expected to wear and as a subtle
critique of the gender expectations in the country. The artists in this thesis
paper similarly embody and question the gender binary that was expected of
11
women in Saudi Arabia at the time they were created. The artwork
addresses gender politics in a number of ways including using iconography
such as the shemagh head dress that is associated with masculinity
incorporated within their artwork highligiting the gender differences and
power dynamics that were in place before the law reforms.
Hend Al-Mansour’s Facebook Project
Artist Hend Al-Mansour (born 1956) moved from Saudi Arabia to Egypt at
age sixteen to obtain a degree in medicine. Due to the gender-restrictive
fatwas of Saudi Arabia, she had to obtain her male guardian's permission to
travel and study abroad. After studying in Egypt, she worked as a
cardiologist for several years in her hometown Hofuf and was known
amongst her colleagues for the drawings she would make in the doctors
rooms. In 1997, Al-Mansour relocated to the United States on a medical
fellowship at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. In the early 2000s she shifted careers
to study art and in 2002 she earned an MFA from the Minneapolis College of
Art and Design, and went on to obtain an MA in Art History from the
University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota in 2013. Al-Mansour’s thesis
investigated the shift in henna art in her hometown and created a series of
art prints in conjunction with the historical designs she documented in her
research. While in graduate school, Al-Mansour co-founded the group Arab
Artists in the Twin Cities, and she was a member of the Arab American
12
Cultural Institute in Minnesota.
9
She is an active community builder,
invested in working with Arab American artists.
Since living in the U.S., Al-Mansour dedicated herself to being a
professional artist. Al-Mansour’s artwork reflects on history and culture from
her hometown Hofuf, a major urban center in Saudi Arabia. She is influenced
by Arab and Pre-Islamic, and Islamic aesthetics such as henna design. She
often references gender politics within her artworks such as illustrating
women who greatly impacted Islam including the Prophet Mohammed’s
wives and daughters. Al-Mansour creates prints, large-scale installations,
paintings and digital artworks.
10
One of her series of screenprints, beginning in 2013 and entitled The
Facebook Project, was initially inspired by her niece’s post on social media,
calling to action Saudi women to drive on a certain day despite it being
punishable by law.
11
The campaign went viral even though the protest never
came to fruition.
12
Although the artist’s niece provided the initial inspiration,
the series developed into something more personal, including a poem
written by the artist before moving to the United States. A condensed,
translated version of the poem posted on her website reads:
13
9
Hend Al-Mansour, “Biography,” Hend Al-Mansour, accessed November 27, 2018,
https://www.hendalmansour.com/bio.html.
10
Ibid.
11
Hend Al-Mansour, “Facebook Project,” Hend Al-Mansour, accessed November 27, 2018,
https://www.hendalmansour.com/facebook-project.html.
12
Ibid.
13
Hend Al-Mansour, “Facebook Poem,” Hend Al-Mansour, accessed November 27, 2018,
https://www.hendalmansour.com/facebook-poem.html.
13
I am writing my face
Hear me, O home
And hold your judgment until the moment is over
I grow out of you, yours is my direction when I pray
Hear me out until the end of the painting
You are whom I write for
You are whom I paint for
You are the crowd who avoids the asking gaze
Avoids searching for the eye of truth
Listen to me for a moment
I came from you, I beg you
Not to bury me alive
And look at me
In the eye, do not despise me
Give me a break and only announce your verdict
After you listen and comprehend
My letters are Hubara’s chicks
Which have hatched - aghast -
Among the teeth of hesitation
My story: my birthplace was a mosque’s chant
Was poetry, was art
Was henna and a kohl stylet
Was a Dahna’a desert where
the hot sand raced the north star
My story: I turned into a wall
My brush was immunized against rain
After the time of dreams
She died
Never stormed and raved again
All colors became one
Black and white
The river stopped
And the trembling of poems
Dried out
14
The full poem in the original Arabic language is also included in her
website.
14
The completed version reveals more of the narrative of the artist
with her brush and her emotions. The poem using the imagery of the brush
is relevant to the pieces in the Facebook series since one of the women is
seen holding a brush while the other woman is retreating into the book. The
two women are able to visualize the conflicting feelings of both hope and
defeat that is articulated in the poem. Al-Mansour has stated that the poem
reflects her personal disappointment and hardship she endured as well as an
unwavering hope for change.
15
The poem is a five-part narrative about
womanhood in Saudi Arabia, with each section increasing in length.
16
Certain
iconography recurs throughout the series—each features a background that
looks like a shemagh and, in the foreground, there is a large open book on
which Al-Mansour’s poem is written. Each of the prints also includes a
traditional Arabic rug on the ground, and the two women around which the
series narrative revolves.
In the first piece, Facebook-1 (2013) (figure 1), viewers are introduced
to two women dressed in abaya, a traditional black robe worn by Muslim
women to cover their clothing that all Saudi women are required to wear in
public.
17
Both women in the artwork are sitting on the ground on top of a
14
Hend Al-Mansour, “Facebook Poem,” Hend Al-Mansour, accessed November 27, 2018,
https://www.hendalmansour.com/facebook-poem.html.
15
Hend Al-Mansour, phone interview with the author, November 24, 2018.
16
Ibid.
17
Stephen Kalin, “Saudi Women to Be Allowed a Choice in Their Public Clothing,”
Independent, accessed March 10, 2020,
15
traditional patterned Arab rug: maroon, greyish blue and golden yellow.
These women sit on either side of the large book—the woman on the right is
looking directly at the viewer, her long, braided hair peeking out from under
her hijab. She writes Arabic poetry onto the open book page. On the
opposite end, the other woman is curled in a fetal position, hiding herself
from the viewer.
In Facebook-2 (2014) (figure 2), we see the same iconic shemagh
background and rug (with a lighter color tone than in the previous version).
The women in Facebook-1 reappear in this piece; here, one of the women is
standing while the other is embedded on a page of the open book, filled with
the lines of the poem. The woman who is standing still wears the traditional
black abaya and hijab with some of her hair exposed. Her challenging gaze
has not broken; she looks directly at the viewer and points her brush
towards the poetry on the adjacent page. Her other hand holds onto the top
of the book. There is a clear distinction between the woman who is slowly
regressing and becoming part of the poem in the pages, and the woman who
is writing the poem, who appears to be defiant in confronting the viewer with
her gaze. The personal poem that is written by Al-Mansour appears across
both versions in the series, underscoring her own personal frustration and
hopefulness regarding gender-based laws, visually represented by the two
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/saudi-arabia-women-abaya-head-
cover-crown-prince-muhammad-bin-salman-a8263446.html.
16
women in the series. Al-Mansour was working on a third print (to be titled
Facebook-3) . She created a version of Facebook-3 (figure 3) but then
ultimately decided it did not fit the series. In this third print, the colors in the
rug appear brighter and Al-Mansour has added green to its color palette. The
text is only written onto the right page this time; the words are reversed and
the submissive woman in the previous iterations is now transparent and
takes up half the page. Al-Mansour adds another female figure, this one
dressed in a long-sleeved shirt, a long skirt, high heels, and a grey-blue
hijab. The woman in green is facing a naked woman which we might
presume is the same woman dressed in the abaya from the previous prints
in the series. The naked woman is still holding onto a brush; her gaze is
intense and focuses more towards the woman in green than the viewer. The
woman in green has stabbed the naked woman and there is blood dripping
down from the brush and from the woman. The blood from the brush is red
while the color of the blood seeping down from the woman’s wound is green.
This version is more vivid and violent than the previous versions because the
woman penetrating the sword into the naked woman who is holding a
paintbrush, the words of the poem are inverted and the dominant color of
green in the piece may be linked to Saudi Arabia’s national color of green.
The artist expressed through a phone interview that this version did not fit
the rest of the project and that she will be working on another version of
Facebook-3. The reasoning may be that this version was digital while the
17
previous versions were screen printed or that the artist decided to depict the
women differently in the amended and finalized version of Facebook-3.
Al-Mansour envisions at least four versions in the series until the entire
poem she wrote is completed. Although the title of the project was inspired
by the artist’s niece, the project itself is focused more on the portrayal of
women in the artwork, the narrative, and the artist's poem. The women in
the Facebook Project series seem to resemble the artist in appearance and
may be self-portraits that connect to the poem that she wrote that reflects
her relationship to Saudi Arabia and the challenges of pressuring her hopes
and dreams despite the challenges. Historically and culturally, poetry holds a
deep spiritual significance and is often used as a form of expressing oneself
in the Arab world. Incorporating the poem within the image pays homage to
a traditional aesthetic such as illuminated manuscripts that would
incorporate text and visuals. Al-Mansour’s series cleverly takes aspects from
traditional Arab artwork such as incorporation of poetry and uses it to
create a contemporary work of art. The ongoing series expresses the artist’s
own experiences and emotions despite that it is relatable to viewers who
share similar thoughts and feelings about their complicated relationship with
the place they are from and themselves.
18
MsSaffaa I Am My Own Guardian
MsSaffaa grew up in Saudi Arabia and currently lives in Australia.
18
MsSaffaa is a self-exiled artist and activist that is passionate about
challenging the patriarchy and highlighting injustices facing women. The
artist frequently integrates images of Saudi activists and those affected by
domestic and state abuse into her work. MsSaffaa often collaborates with
other artists to promote Saudi women’s rights and autonomy by creating
wall murals that are displayed all over the world and documented/circulated
on social media. She was shortlisted for the Index on Censorship Freedom of
Expression award based on her I Am My Own Guardian series that was
initiated in 2012 and went viral in 2016 when Saudis discovered her work
through social media.
19
MsSaffaa reflects upon the different reactions in a
journal published in 2018 titled, “I Am My Own Guardian: Reflections on
Resistance Art.” The journal details the differing intense reactions that were
either supportive or criticizing the campaign.
The I Am My Own Guardian series consisted of four screen prints
(figure 4) that depicted four female figures, each wearing a kufi (a skull cap)
adorned by a shemagh (a traditional Saudi headdress worn by men) and
secured with an agal (a black cord commonly used to keep the shemagh in
18
Ms Saffaa is the name the artist Saffaa Hassanein goes by which is MS and her first name
Saffaa.
19
“Ms Saffaa Artist Resume 2019,” Academia, accessed March 10, 2020,
https://sydney.academia.edu/MsSaffaa.
19
place). Each of the four screen prints includes a woman; two face the side
while the other two look towards the viewer. The series was originally screen
printed with black ink on white paper with the exception of one of the pieces
that includes vibrant magenta, purple, yellow, blue, green and black. This
contrast makes the prints stand out in their white frames.
Dressing the women in men’s clothing, MsSaffaa visualizes a critique
of gender binaries. In Vested Interests: Cross-dressing and Cultural Anxiety,
author Marjorie Garber writes,
One of the most important aspects of cross-dressing is the way in which
it offers a challenge to easy notions of binarity, putting into question the
categories of “female” and “male,” whether they are considered
essential or constructed, biological or cultural. The current popularity of
cross-dressing as a theme in art and criticism represents, I think, an
undertheorized recognition of the necessary critique of binary
thinking…
20
Similarly, I Am My Own Guardian challenges the binary gender norms that
have become a part of Saudi culture and are often unquestioned.
21
It is
expected that a person in Saudi Arabia would adhere to dressing in
garments that fit into the gendered binary. Men are expected to wear thobs
and women dress in abayas. Saudi men hold incredible privilege in society
and women are dependent on their male guardians to function in society.
The defiant act of cross dressing in the I Am My Own Guardian series
critiques that imbalanced power of binary thinking.
20
Marjorie Garber, Vested Interests: Cross Dressing & Cultural Anxiety (New York:
Routledge, 2011), 10.
21
Saffaa Hassanein, "I Am My Own Guardian: Reflections on Resistance Art," Journal of
Middle East Women's Studies 14, no. 2 (2018): 236-241.
20
Since that initial showing in 2012, a smaller version of the series was
exhibited in 2015 in Jeddah at an exhibition entitled Fast Forward: Inner
Voice.
22
Despite its politically charged imagery, the reception, according to
MsSaffaa, was mild. As she reported, “Interestingly enough, when state
representatives came to inspect the exhibit they showed no interest and
raised no objections.”
23
I speculate that the message did not register to the
state representatives. They may have thought it was satire or missed seeing
the artwork completely at Fast Forward: Inner Voice. That same year of
2015, the artist created an image (figure 5) with the same format of the
female figure wearing the headdress, this time only her eyes are visible. The
choice to not represent the entire body was to avoid sexualizing the woman
and center the focus on the core message of equality.
24
The rest of the
woman’s face is covered with the message in a big, black block with white
text stating: “ انأ ة ي لو ير م أ ,” which translates to “I am my own guardian.” There
are different versions of the artwork with the phrase written in both English
and Arabic. The images were posted to Tumblr by the artist in 2012.
25
and
then shared onto other online platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and
22
“New Art Exhibition Opens in Saudi Arabia,” Al Arabiya, accessed March 10, 2020,
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/life-style/art-and-culture/2015/01/23/-New-art-exhibition-
opens-in-Saudi-Arabia-.html.
23
Saffaa Hassanein, "I Am My Own Guardian: Reflections on Resistance Art," Journal of
Middle East Women's Studies 14, no. 2 (2018): 236.
24
Ibid.,238.
25
MsSaffaa, “MsSaffaa,” MsSaffaa, accessed March 10, 2020,
https://mssaffaa.tumblr.com/post/32387717491/update-nov-3rd-2012-sydney-college-of-
the-arts.
21
Twitter. Sometimes the graphics would appear without the proper credit
given to the artist.
26
In 2016, Human Rights Watch published a report that was titled
"Boxed In: Women and Saudi Arabia's Male Guardianship System,” which, as
the title suggests, made the argument that women are boxed in and reliant
upon their male guardians under the system.
27
This report’s hashtag was
"#togethertoendmaleguardianship" which prompted Saudi women to use the
hashtag in a form of online activism. Many of the users also circulated the
image of MsSaffaa’s artwork. The image was most often used without the
artist's permission, without properly citing the artwork or giving due credit to
the artist. The artist responded to the uncredited distribution of her image
by creating a Redbubble account and sold merchandise with the iconic image
from her campaign. The purchases from the T-shirts and stickers from the
website compensated a percentage of the profit to the artist and also
properly credited the MsSaffaa. Many Saudi women and allies supported the
campaign by buying the products and by posting photos and videos of
themselves wearing the shirts and stickers displayed on their social media
pages. The image was heavily circulated by many groups and individuals
that identified positively with the artwork and regarded the art to be almost
like a logo, symbolizing the change they wanted for the guardianship system
26
Ibid., 236
27
Ibid.,236
22
to end. Simultaneously, many others on social media responded negatively
to the image, specifically objecting to the breaking of binary stereotypes
strongly upheld within Saudi society. The artist writes:
Most critics based their objection on the religious premise that
forbids women to dress like men. Some trolls said the image
promotes a homosexual agenda, using the derogatory term for
same-sex attracted individuals, makhanith. Other commenters
argued that the use of the male headdress was too "masculine" to
become a logo for a women's rights campaign. The religious
argument fizzled out fast while the "feminist" discussion continued
as some suggested that a logo for the campaign should represent
"femininity" instead of borrowing from masculine symbolism. The
argument was that by dressing a woman in a man's headdress
and associating her power with his masculinity, the artwork
reaffirms that power belongs to men alone. In the same vein, a
woman remarked that the use of the male headdress as a symbol
of power and independence is too provocative. Another asserted,
essentially, ‘I can be my own guardian in a dress.’
28
In Saudi there is a community of girls that are called boyat (boys) because
they are masculine in the way that they dress and behave.
29
Boyat often
express themselves as masculine but often still identify as female and can be
described as butch and dyke. The concept of gender expression is a different
one from that of sexual orientation, although they are often conflated. In the
case of boyat, there is an intersection of masculine gender expression and
lesbianism. It is because of the generalized stereotype of masculine women
being homosexual that the artist explains the negative responses towards
the campaign were often because of homophobia and discomfort with the
28
Ibid.,236.
29
Madawi Al-Rasheed, A Most Masculine State (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2013), Kindle, 239.
23
cross dressing that is displayed in the artwork. In my opinion, the critics
obsessing over the sexuality of the woman in the artwork are missing the
important message about women's independence from having to rely upon
her male guardian.
MsSaffaa further explains that she was well aware that some people’s
reaction to the work would be influenced by the strict Sharia (laws) that
forbade figurative representation in artwork because it mimics creation that
only Allah (God) can create. The series was inspired after seeing Saudi artist
(discussed in the following section) AbdulAziz Al Qahtani’s photography
collection entitled An Intimate Geography, displayed at the Lahd gallery in
London, which included photographs of women dressed in thobs
(traditionally worn only by men in Saudi Arabia).
30
MsSaffaa explains her
decision not to show a full woman’s body wearing a thob. She states:
I worried that creating a work depicting the full female body would
exclude me from showing my work in Saudi galleries because of
rigid censorship laws regulating human representations in the arts
and media. In the end, I decided to depict only faces and
headdresses to avoid sexualizing women, evade the male gaze,
and focus viewer attention on the core demand for equality. Had
I represented a Saudi woman dressed in the long black cloak
( ʿabaya), the work would have been less controversial but would
not have achieved my subversive vision. Dressing women in the
male headdress draws attention to women's erased social and
political identities, publicly challenges dominant cultural
30
Adnan Z. Manjal, “SQUA.RE Exclusive: 'An Intimate Geography': AbdulAziz Al Qahtani
Solo Exhibition at Lahd Gallery, London," SQUA.RE, accessed March 10, 2020,
https://squa.re/2011/01/03/squa-re-exclusive-%E2%80%9Can-intimate-
geography%E2%80%9D-abdulaziz-al-qahtani-solo-exhibition-at-lahd-gallery-london/.
24
representations of women, and unapologetically defies religious
views that ban women from dressing like men.
31
It is clear that the artist is aware of the circumstance of censorship that is in
place when creating the work. She creatively subverts the restrictions by
avoiding showing a female body and instead focuses on the face and the text
of her message. The reasoning of the use of the male headdress instead of
the traditional religious hijab is to highlight and bring attention to the
gendered differences and power dynamics.
MsSaffaa’s ongoing I Am My Own Guardian series exists in different
mediums and locations; whether wheat pasted on exterior walls, framed and
presented in gallery settings, or emblazoned on t-shirts, the artist has made
her image readily accessible for people to become part of a larger I Am My
Own Guardian campaign. The artist actively posts on social media where this
and other artworks exist in a digital space. The I Am My Own Guardian
campaign has become a symbol for many people who support change for
women’s rights in Saudi Arabia and challenges the binary gender inequality
system that is in place.
31
Saffaa Hassanein, "I Am My Own Guardian: Reflections on Resistance Art," Journal of
Middle East Women's Studies 14, no. 2 (2018): 238.
25
Abdulaziz Al Qahtani An Intimate Geography
Abdulaziz Al Qahtani was a photographer and fashion designer
originally from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He resided in London for a few years
before passing away in 2013.
32
Three years before his death, Al Qahtani had
his first and only solo exhibition, entitled An Intimate Geography and shown
at Princess Nauf Bendar Al Saud’s Lahd Gallery (London). The photographs,
though exhibited in 2010 at the Lahd gallery in London owned by a Saudi
royal, have never been shown in Saudi Arabia.
33
The gallery's location
outside of Saudi Arabia allows for a different audience in the diaspora to
view art; it also allows for a safer space to display works that may be
censored and not accepted in Saudi to be displayed as the more
conservative viewers would have less of a chance of accessing the space.
The privilege of it being owned by a princess adds prestige and protection,
as if it is associated with the royal family it is less likely for religious and
cultural authorities to take grievances with it. For these reasonings, it was
possible to exhibit An Intimate Geography. The exhibition included a series
of eleven photographs that explored social taboos and gender binary
32
There is limited information available online about the artist and his practice. I have even
contacted Lahd gallery that he was represented by and they have little information about
him. It is because of this that this section is so short but also necessary to preserve the
information that is available and to honor the series that he created.
33
“Saudi Arabia,” Human Rights Watch, accessed March 10, 2020,
https://www.hrw.org/legacy/wr2k/Mena-08.htm.
26
dynamics in Saudi society. Al Qahtani visually represents aspects of
sexuality through select photographs in his series, including the photograph
Pride and Groom (2010) (figure 6) and Feminism (2010) (figure 7). The
photograph Pride and Groom focuses on a married couple standing beside
one another, the man on the left and woman on right. The muscular man is
dressed in a black corset, black pantyhose, and black platform heels. The
man’s face is covered by the traditional shemagh, with only his eyes and
nose showing and his hands are restrained by handcuffs. The woman is
dressed in a white wedding gown with lace trim, her face is covered with a
black niqab (a form of the veil) with only her eyes appearing. She wears a
shemagh on top of her hijab and holds a black whip in her hands. The
placement clearly shows the power dynamic of the couple with the woman
holding the whip in her hand. Although under Islamic doctrine it is stated
that both husband and wife are entitled to pleasure during conjugal relations
(it is a sin to deny a participant from their desires), the doctrine in today’s
society is most often interpreted only for the gains of cisgender men, and an
excuse for husbands to demand sex or deny their wives their wants and
needs. It is important to note that wives are often shamed and/or denied
their right of pleasure. This religious doctrine is often ignored or interpreted
in a way that favors the male in the relationship. This photograph highlights
gender power structures by subverting the power of who is perceived to be
27
dominant in a marriage. In my opinion, the photo returns to this historical
sacred rule of intimacy between husband and wife.
The photograph’s inclusion of erotic items related to bondage,
discipline, dominance, and submission – corset, handcuffs, whip – alludes to
sexual play and pleasure between the couple. The photograph subverts
typical Saudi power roles of who is dominant and submissive within married
relations and society. In the photograph, the man is in handcuffs and the
woman holds the whip, an unambiguous symbol of control. With the
photographs being in black and white the color red in the shemagh really
stands out in the prints. Another photograph in the series, entitled
Feminisim (2010), shows an empowered woman who has long black hair and
is wearing eyeliner with dangling earrings and dressed in the traditional
white thob (worn only by men in Saudi Arabia). The woman in the
photograph has the upper buttons of the thob open exposing some of her
skin and her legs and black heels are also showing since she is holding up
her thob. There are three men who are topless wearing white sirwals (long
underwear) and the traditional red and white shemagh on their heads, which
covers their faces. The inclusion of multiple men could be a reference to how
men in Islam are allowed to marry four wives at a time whilst women are
expected to only be devoted to one husband at a time.
In the photograph, two of the men are facing the woman on either
side and one of the men is on the ground facing the floor and is being
28
stepped on by the woman. In the woman’s hand is an agal, which is a black
rope accessory that is used to hold the shemagh in place while on your
head. Men have been known to use the agal as a method to hit their wives,
children, and even their friends, similar to how someone might use a belt or
a sandal to abuse another person. The woman holding the agal implies that
she claims a kind of physical dominance over the men she is with. This is
similar to the wife in the Pride and Groom photograph who holds a whip. In
interviews, Al Qahtani stated that his intention with the series was not to link
his series with religion but rather explore societal expectations and
standards in the Arab region.
34
Although the intention of the series was not
to involve religion it is clear that there are religious elements included in the
symbolism as societal expectations are heavily influenced by religion in
Saudi Arabia.
Writing on gender roles in society, scholar Sarah Ahmed writes in The
Promise of Happiness, “Maintaining public comfort requires that certain
bodies ‘go along with it,’ to agree to where you are placed. To refuse to be
placed would mean to be seen as trouble, causing discomfort for others'.”
35
Al Qahtani’s photographs challenge societal expectations by showing us
taboos that are often not discussed within society and would be censored if
shown in Saudi Arabia at the time because of the shocking nature of
34
Sara Yasin, “An Interview with Abdulaziz Al-Qahtani,” Muslim Media Watch, accessed
March 10, 2020, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/saudi-arabia-
women-abaya-head-cover-crown-prince-mohammad-bin-salman-a8263446.html.
35
Sarah Ahmed, The Promise of Happiness (Durhan: Duke University Press, 2010), 39.
29
eroticisim and gender play that is displayed in them. The provocative series
is defiant and managed to be exhibited in a gallery that is owned by a
princess for the public to view. The gallery being in another country far from
the conseravative audiences and authority allowed for the exhibition to
happen. Al Qahtani’s work pushed boundaries; the bodies in the
photographs don’t seek public comfort, they don’t just submit to restrictive
fatwas, instead they play with gender roles and power dynamics. The series
gives us a glimpse of taboo topics that are rarely discussed in Saudi society.
Manal Al Dowayan
Manal Al Dowayan, born in 1973, lives between Dhahran, Dubai, and
London. She holds a Master’s degree in Systems Analysis and an MA in
Contemporary Art Practice in Public Spheres from the Royal College of Art. Al
Dowayan has exhibited her artwork in Saudi Arabia, throughout the Arab
region and globally. Al Dowayan’s work examines topics that are related to
her own experiences as a Saudi woman which is often a shared experience
for many Saudi women in the kingdom.
36
The topics she looks at in her
artwork are reflective of everyday life for Saudi women, such as the driving
ban (women not being able to drive in Saudi Arabia until 2017) and the
guardianship law (women had to display a document stating that their male
36
Al Dowayan Manal, “Biography,”accessed March 10, 2020,
https://www.manaldowayan.com/manal-aldowayan.html.
30
guardian granted them permission to travel, which lasted until 2019 when
women above 21 did not need to show documentation from their guardians
to travel). Al Dowayan’s artwork questions norms in society such as not
uttering a woman’s name in public or in print to preserve a family’s honor. Al
Dowayan empowers Saudi women by centering them and their agency. Her
artwork often involves collaborating with other women.
For example, she
asked a diverse range of Saudi women to send in their permission travel
documents to use in her sculptures and workshops.
37
The series Esmi (My name) (2012) (figure 8) is a large wooden
sculpture that emulates Islamic prayer beads. Saudi society has shied away
from using women’s names in everyday speech and it has even become
taboo to say a woman’s name in public and private speech. This taboo has
no religious doctrinal foundation or cultural history, but nevertheless has
become a social norm that is typically not questioned. This is contradictory
to the religious history that mentions important women by name, an
example of this being Aisha bint Abi Bakr mentioned in the Battle of the
Camel mentioned in the introduction. Esmi (My name) included a workshop
where the Saudi women and girls wrote down their names on wooden beads,
which were then strung onto a large sculpture, resembling masbaha (Islamic
prayer beads). Having women and girls write their own names to be
37
Al Dowayan Manal, “Suspended Together,” accessed March 10, 2020,
https://www.manaldowayan.com/suspended-together.html.
31
gathered onto a structure resembling something that is sacred emphasizes
the hypocrisy of the taboo, since women’s names are frequently praised and
mentioned in Islam. Esmi (My name) disrupts the societal etiquette that
does not acknowledge a woman’s name and also highlights the hypocrisy of
how traditional Islam in its original state has been altered to enforce the
patiarchy.
Al Dowayan involved Saudi women as participants in some of her other
series such as Suspended Together (2011) (figure 9), where the artist
sought out a diverse range of women from Saudi Arabia to utilize a copy of
their travel permission documents. Suspended Together reveals how the
travel ban affects a range of women, as participants whose documents were
being used varied in age and occupations. The participants included
scientists, scholars, educators, journalists, artists, and engineers
38
Each
participant contributed to Saudi society differently, but was equally
restricted from traveling without permission at the time the series was
created in 2011. Participants also varied in age, the eldest being sixty and
the youngest six months old.
39
The artist transformed the documents into
sculptural doves. The installation consisted of a total of 200 doves that were
hung from the ceiling. The artist states that, “regardless of age and
achievement, when it comes to travel, all these women are treated like a
38
Al Dowayan Manal, “Suspended Together,” accessed March 10, 2020,
https://www.manaldowayan.com/suspended-together.html.
39
Ibid
32
flock of suspended doves.”
40
Al Dowayan’s piece transforms doves, typically
seens as a symbol of freedom and movement, into signifiers of the
suspension and restriction facing many women during the travel ban.
Al Dowayan’s subsequent series Tree of Guardians (2014) (figure 10)
also included women participants. Here, the artist chose to subvert the
typical emphasis on men being recorded in history and focus on the many
women that contributed to society. The series contained brass leaves,
recorded audio of several family’s oral histories, which equated to 2000
leaves and 400 different family tree drawings. Each brass leaf in the
installation was strung from fish wire and hung from the ceiling. Most family
trees and lineages are focused on the patriarchal element that often does
not acknowledge women and their many contributions towards society.
Family trees are symbolic in many cultures and usually show the roots of the
clan in many instances the woman’s name is left out in the Arab world. Al
Dowayan is centering the importance of a woman’s role in the family by
using her name on the leaves of the tree. She is also reminding us that
women do not need to depend on a male guardian as they can rely on
themselves. Another series titled Crash (figure 11) was done during a 2014
residency at Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern Art, located in Qatar. Crash is a
research project that looked at the tragic accidents that happened to female
school teachers who were commuting to their teaching jobs in remote
40
Ibid
33
villages from their residence. Al Dowayan visualized the routes the women
pinning them on maps, alongside social media posts they made during their
trip before the accident occurred. The women often traveled in groups and
hired a driver since they were not allowed to drive at the time the project
was begun in 2014. The artist emphasized the women’s names when
possible since they were omitted from being published in journals. During
the residency and exhibition, she opened up her studio to the public and
held discussions with Qatar’s community including students, professors and
journalists.
41
Al Dowayan’s practice shows a focus in reclaiming a woman’s power
and connecting women together through community collaboration. She
illuminates the role of women’s importance in society that is taken from
historical roots that regard women in society with deep respect and regard.
41
Al Dowayan Manal,“Crash In Project Space.” Accessed March 10, 2020.
https://www.manaldowayan.com/crash2.html.
34
Balqis Al Rashed
Balqis Al Rashed was born in Saudi Arabia in 1984 and raised in
Lebanon for sixteen years before returning to Saudi Arabia in 2010. Al
Rashed noted feeling more like a tourist and thought of her move as a
temporary one, but soon realized that she did not want to consider herself
as a foreigner in her own country and decided to reclaim her Saudi
identity.
42
Altering how she identified allowed her to question and express
her Saudi self through her art practice. Al Rashed holds a Bachelor of Fine
Arts in Graphic design from the American University of Beirut. She has been
part of several art residencies in the United States and in the United Arab
Emirates and has exhibited work in both countries, as well as in London.
43
Al Rashed was only given the opportunity to exhibit her art in Saudi Arabia
once in 2011. The artist has a strong social media presence which acts as an
extension of her practice and documents her performances while allowing
audiences from all over to view her artwork.
In 2018, the artist’s Instagram account (@balqisalrashed) was shut
down according to the artist’s website because of its “expressive artistic
nature.”
44
The artist currently has two active Instagram accounts:
@notreallybalqis, which showcases documentation of her general art
42
Balqis Al Rashed, email conversation with the author, October 19, 2019.
43
Balqis Alrashed, “Information: تامو لعم,” Balqis Alrashed, accessed March 10, 2020,
https://www.hendalmansour.com/facebook-project.html.
44
Ibid
35
practice, and @almutanaqibah, which focuses on her A State Of Play (2014)
(figure 12) series.
A State Of Play is a performance series that includes the artist using a
hula hoop while wearing a niqab (a form of the veil that covers the face).
The combination of movement from the hula hoop paired with the niqab, a
signifier that is often associated with restriction generated a lot of attention
including being featured on Instagram’s home page in 2016. The general
reaction toward A State Of Play was both of praise and criticism. The usage
of the niqab in the performance allowed a sense of anonymity for the artist,
but which became exposed when A State Of Play was featured on
Instagram’s home page in 2016; this revealed the artist’s information of who
she was and suddenly people’s reaction to the piece became different
because they now associated the piece with the artist’s identity as a Saudi
woman. The artist slowly became more comfortable with the exposure and
her role as a Saudi artist. A State Of Play is a performance series that
embraces contradictions by using symbols like the hula hoop that is a plastic
toy that is primarily associated with childhood, play and movement and the
niqab that is typically associated with womanhood and often seen as
restrictive because of its association to modesty. The performance series is
ongoing and has taken numerous iterations and was performed in different
locations, the performances are often recorded and archived on Instagram.
36
Another performance by Al Rashed, Norms of Life (2019) (figure 13),
reflects on transitional experiences of marriage and death. The performance
was done while at a residency in Alserkal Avenue, a contemporary art gallery
located in Dubai. The performance invited the community to attend the
artist’s “wedding” and “funeral,” and embodied love and loss of those
transitional experiences by attending as guests to the performance.
The performance was split into two nonconsecutive nights: a henna
night and a wedding night. Henna nights are typically conducted by women
before celebrations such as marriages, similar to a bachelorette party, where
they use the natural and temporary dye for intricate body art and hair
coloring. The henna night preceded the wedding/funeral. The intimate
gathering of the henna night included only women participants and was in
collaboration with henna artist Dr. Azra. That night, the women shared food
together, danced, and adorned themselves with decorative henna on their
bodies while celebrating collectively in anticipation of a wedding. The
exclusion of men in this part of the performance allows a space for women
to gather in sisterhood and heal together as a community as they have a
night filled with joy.
The wedding portion of the performance occurred on a different day
and welcomed both men and women to participate as guests. Marriage is
heavily emphasized and expected of women in Saudi society. Girls are
groomed with the idea of the importance of marriage from a young age. In
37
fact much of anthropological research about Saudi is about the topic of
marriage. Anthropologist Soraya Altorki even expresses her frustrations
about the limited topic in the first chapter in her book, Women in Saudi
Arabia: Ideology and Behavior Among the Elite. Altorki states that: “My
decision to study family life was not a matter of choice so much as a
consequence of the field situation.”
45
The sacred unity of marriage conducted
in this performance was not between a man and a woman, but only the
artist. The artist describes this on her website as, “This marriage did not
unite two people, it was the marriage of dualities, of the bitterness and
sweetness of life, the balance of the masculine and the feminine, and the
tragedy of death and the celebration of creation.”
Video documentation of the performance uploaded on the artist’s
Instagram account (@notreallybalqis) starts off with Al Rashed preparing for
her big day.
46
She is seen putting on her makeup and then covering her face
with a white mask and wedding veil. She dresses herself in a modified thob,
which includes additional fabric to the back of the thob, in order to mimic a
wedding dress trail on the otherwise traditional garment worn by men. The
video then shows the bride emerging from the room and beginning to walk
onto a street parade with an entourage of musicians beating their drums,
tambourines, and playing the bagpipe the audience members tag along,
45
Soraya Altorki, Women in Saudi Arabia: Ideology and Behavior among the Elite (New
York: Columbia University Press, 1986), 2.
46
Balqis Al Rashed, Instagram post, August 7, 2019
38
following the rhythm of the music and the bride. Al Rashed is seen throwing
rice as she walks towards a structure of grey cinder blocks on the ground
that was lit with fire inside. In the middle of the cinder blocks that have fire
lit inside them, the artist stops walking and through the smoke, the viewer
witnesses the artist dramatically cutting off the excess bottom of her thob
and removing the mask and veil; the artist sheds off femenine accessories
that were part of the costume. After shedding the trim of the thob, mask
and veil, she appears simply dressed in the thob, and begins to walk inside
to a room. The atmosphere of the room appears to be celebratory. Inside,
the viewer witnesses neon decorative lights reflected in multiplicity of colors
on the wall. The musical group called Cosmic Roots is playing live music. The
mood is set for a party and celebration. The guests are seated on the floor
with traditional rugs and cushions. A feast of the traditional rice and meat
dish that is typically served in large gatherings for special occasions such as
weddings and funerals is served by hand from the artist herself while
wearing plastic gloves for sanitary reasons. Sitting on the floor for
gatherings and having the food served by hand is commonplace traditional
in Arab social events. After the meal is consumed, the bones from the meat
are gathered from the guests plates. The cinder blocks are placed in a
rectangular structure, symbolizing a coffin. The inside of the structure is
filled with sand and the artist carefully places the remains of the bones
within the coffin and lays down inside of it. The wedding, therefore, is
39
transformed into a funeral. The atmosphere of the room switches to a
somber one, with the artist laying in her coffin. This communal performance
evokes reflection about life and death. As the title suggests, Norms Of Life
takes us on important passages in life such as the henna party that brings
together women before a wedding, the wedding itself that was filled with
celebration and joy and finally the extraordinary funeral. The performance
takes elements of weddings and funerals that are occasions that happen
everyday and are expected in life and personalized to fit the artist’s vision.
Al Rashed’s practice similarly to the other artist’s practices mentioned in this
thesis is deeply personal. She uses cultural signifiers in their work that many
can also relate to.
40
Conclusion
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is rapidly undergoing numerous changes
including an ease on the guardianship system. The system was built upon a
series of fatwas in the 1980s but no longer functions the same, as there has
been an ease on many of the legal policies. Women are ostensibly given the
right to vote, work, travel, drive and so on without legally needing to obtain
permission from their male guardian. There has been an increase in art and
cultural initiatives in the country with an investment in spaces such as the
King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture, and other projects such as art
weeks and biennials that take place in the kingdom. The Saudi contemporary
artists in this thesis created works that reference and question the heavily
gendered roles that were in place in the kingdom and the patriarchal society
that is still in place. Hend Al-Mansour, Ms Saffaa, Abdulaziz Al-Qahtani,
Manal Al Dowayan, and Balqis Al-Rashed all have an ongoing practice with
the exception of Abdulaziz Al-Qahtani who has passed away.
I have been following these artists careers since I first discovered
them as a teenager and they strongly impacted and influenced my own life
in many ways, including my career path in the art world. It was important to
me to be able to have these artists written about in academia since the
majority of them are often not included in scholarship. My intention is to
41
have a record of these artists and their attributions to art and politics in
Saudi Arabia that can be reflected on in this thesis. These artists belong in a
wider discussion of protest graphics and inserted in the same discussions as
regional Arab artists, feminist discussions, and discussions in the wider
realm of art history. This paper intentionally just focuses on Saudi artists not
because they do not belong in the categories mentioned, but because I
wanted to dedicate the paper to thinking about their particular situatedness
in the world. These artists choose to reclaim their culture by playing around
with traditional signifiers such as the shemagh in their works. Despite living
in a time where the country was more restrictive they found ways to express
themselves and exhibit their works in the country and abroad. They embrace
social media platforms such as Instagram that virtually exhibits their artwork
making it accessible to audiences that may not be able to view their works in
person.
42
Image Appendix:
(figure 1) Facebook-1 (2013)
43
(figure 2) Facebook-2 (2014)
44
(figure 3) screen shot of
artist's Instagram of what was
Facebook-3
(figure 4) Screenshot of the series at the Sydney College of the Arts
undergrad degree show
45
(figure 5) I Am My Own
Guardian (2012)
46
(figure 6) Pride and Groom (2010)
47
(figure 7) Feminism (2010)
(figure 8) Esmi (my name) (2012)
48
(figure 9) Suspended Together (2011)
(Figure 10)Tree of Guardians (2014)
49
(figure 11) Crash 2014
(figure 12) A State of Play (2015)
(figure 13) Norms of Life (2019)
50
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23, 2015. https://english.alarabiya.net/en/life-style/art-and-
culture/2015/01/23/-New-art-exhibition-opens-in-Saudi-Arabia-.html.
Al Dowayan, Manal.“Biography.” Accessed March 10, 2020.
https://www.manaldowayan.com/manal-aldowayan.html.
Al Dowayan, Manal.“Crash Project In Space.”. Accessed March 10, 2020.
https://www.manaldowayan.com/crash2.html.
Al Dowayan, Manal. “Suspended Together.” MANAL ALDOWAYAN. Accessed
March 10, 2020. https://www.manaldowayan.com/suspended-
together.html.
Al-Rasheed, Madawi. A Most Masculine State. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2013. Kindle.
Altorki, Soraya. Women in Saudi Arabia: Ideology and Behavior among the
Elite. New York: Columbia University Press, 1986.
Al-Mansour, Hend. “Biography.” Hend Al-Mansour. Accessed November 27,
2018.
https://www.hendalmansour.com/bio.html.
Al-Mansour, Hend. “Facebook Poem.” Hend Al-Mansour. Accessed November
27, 2018.
https://www.hendalmansour.com/facebook-poem.html.
Al-Mansour, Hend. “Facebook Project.” Hend Al-Mansour. Accessed
November 27, 2018.
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Alrashed, Balqis. “Information: ت ام و لعم.” Balqis Alrashed. Accessed March 10,
2020.
51
https://balqisalrashed.com/balqis-information#/about/.
Associated Press. “Saudi Woman Arrested for Attending Football Match
in Riyadh.” The Guardian, December 15, 2014.
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arrested-football-match.
Butler, Judith. Undoing Gender. London: Routledge, 2004. ProQuest Ebrary.
Garber, Marjorie. Vested Interests: Cross Dressing & Cultural Anxiety. New
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Hassanein, Saffaa. "I Am My Own Guardian: Reflections on Resistance Art."
Journal of Middle East Women's Studies 14, no. 2 (2018): 236-241.
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Clothing,” Independent, March 19, 2018.
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Manjal, Adnan Z. "SQUA.RE Exclusive: 'An Intimate Geography': AbdulAziz
Al Qahtani Solo Exhibition at Lahd Gallery, London." Everyone Comes
To SQUA.RE. Accessed March 10, 2020.
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intimate-geography%E2%80%9D-abdulaziz-al-qahtani-solo-
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abdulaziz-al-qah
Abstract (if available)
Abstract
This thesis concerns itself with artworks created before the recent political reforms towards the guardianship system in Saudi Arabia. The guardianship system was built upon a series of fatwas (religious opinions) in the 1980s. The guardianship system ensured that Saudi women must abide by their male guardian who is a close male relative. Women were required to seek out permission for mobility, marriage, work, education, and travel. There have been numerous laws in response to the guardian system and the ease of restrictions towards Saudi women. This thesis historicizes select works created by Hend Al-Mansour, MsSaffaa, Abdulaziz Al-Qahtani, Manal Al Dowayan, and Balqis Al-Rashid. The bodies of works selected vary in media and address gender dynamics by using cultural symbolism.
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Asset Metadata
Creator
Bager, Loujain
(author)
Core Title
Redress: gender and power in Saudi Arabian art
School
Roski School of Art and Design
Degree
Master of Arts
Degree Program
Curatorial Practices and the Public Sphere
Publication Date
05/04/2020
Defense Date
05/04/2020
Publisher
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Tag
Abdulaziz Al-Qahtani,art,Balqis Al-Rashid,gender,Guardianship,Hend Al-Mansour,Manal Al Dowayan,MsSaffaa,OAI-PMH Harvest,Saudi Arabia
Language
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), Guirguis, Sherin (
committee member
), Lin, Jenny (
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Tags
Abdulaziz Al-Qahtani
Balqis Al-Rashid
gender
Hend Al-Mansour
Manal Al Dowayan
MsSaffaa