A dominant feature in recent discussions of the Middle East, nowhere more so than in the so-called West, concerns the totemic value placed in the veil and women’s clothing in Muslim societies. The hijab, which is defined by Islamic legal systems as that which covers everything except the face and hands in public, is the subject of controversy, not so much in the Middle East as it is in Europe and elsewhere. Operating on a number of symbolic levels at once, it is easy to forget that the garments that come under the hijab dress code range from the khimar (or shaylah) which covers the head, to the chador, a loose fitting cloak worn by many Iranian women in public spaces, to the burka (or Afghan chadri) which covers the entirety of the body including, but not always, the eyes, and the abaya, a full-length, sleeveless outer garment worn by many women across the region. An increasingly contested sign of Muslim consciousness, these items of clothing come to define different things to different people. In the West, they have secured a place in the popular imagination as a sign of the lack of women’s rights in Islamic societies and, in the guise of the veil, a signifier of unavailability and repression. Amidst these often conflicting meanings, artists such as Wasma Mansour have explored the symbolic codes and values associated with, in particular, the abaya, and questioned the often narrow interpretations of it. In a package, of a package, of a package, Mansour portrays the abaya as an objective fact of life, an item of clothing that has many different associations and meanings across North Africa and the Middle East; ranging, as the artist notes, from a symbol of personal choice (in Egypt, for example) or a religious duty (as in Iran, where women are not required to wear full chador or a veil but many do). The abaya and the veil can also represent a socio-religious obligation (in Saudi Arabia) or be a compelling sign of resistance (as it is in Algeria). The point, eloquently made by Mansour, is that clothing is adaptive and indeed adaptable. Rather than show women wearing abaya, however, Mansour shows it in various packages, neatly folded away for use at a later date. The abaya here is not a defining factor in the lives of women but an element, amongst many others, in their definition of their own identity.
The accoutrements of life and living are likewise key to Mansour’s Still Life series where we see the personal space and belongings of Saudi women living in England. The genre of ‘still life’ is often seen as traditional in a formal context and it still maintains a resonance in photographic work that suggests a degree of artifice or arrangement; however, Mansour’s images seem to take these rooms as she finds them and ‘still life’ here becomes an image of lives lived and the places they are lived in. In one image, clothes are piled in no order; in others, beds are neatly made and rooms seem tidy and orderly. In others, personal items, such as shoes and make-up become the focus and the everyday seems touched by a human presence that is nevertheless absent. Emptied of human presence, these items become invested with a sense of identity, albeit the displaced identity of their owners. As a viewer, there is a also degree of discomfort in viewing someone else’s bedroom, a highly personal and private space, and yet this is not about voyeurism as much as it concerns, according to Mansour, the stories and anecdotes that are attached to these objects and places. The ‘still life’ element here is very much connected to another timeless genre: that of the portrait. Working closely with her subjects, Mansour’s photographs manage to creatively sidestep narrow modes of representation, whether it is of the so-called veil or the abaya, or the lives of women. By opening up a dialogue with her subjects, in the process of creating what she calls the ‘photographic event’, she provides them with the opportunity to discuss and explore their own sense of identity at a remove from the expectations placed upon them, by both the artist and the viewer. ‘The challenge’ Mansour says of the project, ‘was to aesthetically narrate the multifarious ways in which Saudi women assert their subjectivity [and] to represent that rich world in a plethora of settings and spaces, and hope to transmit some of its texture and flavour.’ Wasma Mansour’s work will be on show this year at Jeddah Art Week (1 – 6 February 2014). BY : Anthony Downey