These photos by Shadi Ghadirian are some of my favorite images. They are from a series called Like Everyday. The artist's statement is combined with the statement for another series named Qajar and reads as follows
... When I did the Qajar series of photographs, I had just graduated and the duality and contradiction of life at that time provided the motive for me to display this contrast: a woman who one can not say to what time she belongs; a photograph from two eras; a woman who is dazed; a woman who is not connected to the objects in her possession. It was very natural that after marriage, vacuum cleaners and pots and pans find their way into my photographs; a woman with a different look, a woman who no matter in what part of the world she is living, still has these kinds of apprehensions.
This time the woman is convicted of a daily repetitive routine and for this reason I named the series "Like Every Day". Now I know what I wish to say with my photographs. Until now, I have had many photographs which show women as second class citizens or depict the censorship of women.
I wish to continue speaking of women because I still have a lot to say. These are my words as a woman and the words of all the other women who live in Iran where being a woman has its own unique system.
I do not believe that Islam inherently treats women as objects. However, I do believe that men in the Islamic world have done a terrible job of treating women as the Prophet and his household (as) did. I don't think Ghadirian's photos are inflammatory but they do raise questions of how Muslim men view women's roles.
6 comments:
This photographer is really neat. I went to her QAJAR site & it's great..........I'm going to forward it to Pari as I know she'd enjoy seeing Shadi's work.
the chaddar's look awesome I have one of those but only to pray with not to sweep, cook, clean etc. thankfully things get done if I'm busy . anyways the subject of how men treat woman especially in Iran, I would not know so much but I would say that ever since I grew up and I'm an arab, I've always seen arab woman being jealous of Persian woman because they've always thought from what they see that persian woman live like queens in their kingdom (home).
now if we were to discuss muslim woman all over the world and how they are treated it is an endless topic to discuss. :)
Nice Blog
i think the subject of the piece is muslim women all over the world, even though Shadi was probably only initially commenting on Iranian women. What I get from the series is that these are shots of the kind of wife too many Muslim men want and expect which serve only to be obedient, pious (even when the husband is not) and to cook and clean like maids
I don't wanna speak from one end to another but I'll speak in general, for instance those men who wind up getting married and wanting an obedient wife who cooks, cleans etc. basically like a maid. But bottom line is why don't we follow our big examples Imam ali a.s and fatimat alzahraa ...when Imam Ali a.s walks in and finds fatima a.s picking the lentills to cook he goes and sits and help her clean the lentills. Isn't that a sign of yes she cooks but there is nothing wrong with lending her a hand, or simply appreciate her and everything she does.
I think we cam sum up all of it with one word: Compromise
if Muslims followed their religion properly and learned from the behavior of ahlul bayt we wouldn't be seeing a lot of the problems we see
we think alike but unfortunately not all muslims are following their religion properly, to me most people turned religion into a tradition. Religion is not something you should believe in because everyone else does. because then you are not going to receive any thawab for it or good deeds towards your after life beacsue Quran states :"Every soul will be (held) in pledge for its deeds" . Like some people say I'm a muslim and yet he/she does not pray, read the quran, fast on ramadhan, avoid sins and help others take the right path etc. This is reality. Allah swt. said: (الرجال قوامون على النساء)
this verse correctly translates as : "Men have qawama (guardianship and authority) over women because of the advantage they (men) have over them (women) and because they (men) spend their property in supporting them (women)". But that actual verse is being used as in woman must obey their husband at all times, yes true they must but what really gets to you is that men take their obedience and use it against them.
Post a Comment