Photographer Boushra Almutawakel’s ongoing series about the hijab explores the many ways to look at the hijab, and how it affects identity of and assumptions about the women who wear it.

Hijab Series

I first started the series on the hijab/veil while attending photography school, where I attended a lecture by the Egyptian feminist writer Nawal Elsadawi. At that lecture she said that she felt that women who wore the hijab/veil or nigab were the same as women who wore makeup, in the sense that they all hid their true identities. I thought that was a fascinating perspective, and so decided to interpret this photographically. I wasn’t planning on creating a body of work on the topic.

Until then, I had been reluctant to create work on the hijab or veil, mostly because it was such a powerful iconic image that seemed to conjure strong emotions. I also felt it had been overused, and I wanted to stay clear of creating stereotypical clichéd work.

However, After September 11, I was compelled to create images on the veil, particularly since Islam and  Muslims had taken international center stage. I found that we, as Arabs and Muslims, were either demonized or romanticized. Part of this paradoxical portrayal is the way Middle Eastern women have been portrayed artistically and/or in the media, as exotic, beautiful, and mysterious; or helpless, oppressed and ugly. Part of this portrayal, in many cases, has included the hijab.

 As an Arab Muslim woman living in Yemen who has first-hand experience with the hijab, I have mixed feelings regarding this topic. There are certain aspects of the hijab I like and others I don't particularly care for. I don't believe it is black or white. I found the veil to be an intriguing, complex, multilayered topic.

In this ongoing project on the hijab/veil I want to explore the many faces and facets of the veil based on my own personal experiences and observations:  the convenience, freedom, strength, power, liberation, limitations, danger, humor, irony, variety, cultural, social, and religious aspects, as well as the beauty, mystery, and protection. The hijab/veil as a form of self-expression;  the veil as not solely an Arab Middle Eastern phenomenon, the trends, the history and politics of the hijab/veil, as well as differing interpretations, and the fear in regards to the hijab/veil.

I also want to be careful not to fuel the stereotypical widespread negative images most commonly portrayed about the hijab/veil in the Western media, especially the notion that most, or all women who wear the hijab/veil, are weak, oppressed, ignorant, and backwards. Furthermore, I hope to challenge and look at both Western and Middle Eastern stereotypes, fears, and ideas regarding the veil.

About the Artist

Boushra Y. Almutawakel studied in the USA and Yemen and was a founding member of the Al-Halaqa in Sana’a, an artists’ group which created a space for discourse and exhibitions and forged links with international artists. Boushra has worked as a photographer for the United Nations, CARE International, the Royal Netherlands Embassy, the Social Organisation for Family Development, the National Institute for Health Education, The British Council, The French Embassy,and many others, while pursuing her own personal photographic projects. In 1999, she was honoured as the first Yemeni Woman Photographer, with a number of other Yemeni women pioneers by the Empirical Research and Women’s Studies Centre at Sana’a University.

In 2001 Boushra won a World Studio Foundation Scholarship toward her study for a Diploma in Advertising Photography at the Portfolio Centre, Atlanta, USA, completing the program in 2002.  As a photo student, she won Mac on Campus (1st place),Show South (gold), among others and her work was published in CMYK magazine (2001-2) and Graphis New Talent Design Annual (2002).

Boushra worked as a consultant on cultural affairs for the Yemeni Embassy in Washington (2002-3) and organised a series of events in the DC area, as part of the  ‘Windows on the Cultural Heritage of Yemen”, a symposium at the Smithsonian, as well as exhibits, lectures, concerts and film screenings on Yemen. From 2005-2006 she worked at the Ministry of Human Rights in Sana’a, focusing on women’s issues, while also pursuing her photography.

Her work has been acquired by the British Museum in London, The Museum of Fine Arts of Boston, the Barjeel Foundation, as well as by other well known collectors. Boushra Almutawakel currently works and lives in Sana’a, with her husband and their four lovely daughters. 

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