Street Art As A Male Dominant Form Of Art

One Saudi woman, Lana, criticizes American women for displaying their bodies in public, debating that women in Saudi Arabia are free rather than the women in Western Civilization. Lana disparaged Western culture by asking “Why should I show my legs and breasts to men? Is that really freedom?'' This becomes a trend for the answers Kristof had gathered that Saudi women believe they are the ones “free from sexual harassment, free from pornography, free from seeing their bodies used to market cars and colas. It is Western women, they say, who have been manipulated into becoming the toys of men,” demonstrating how Saudi women defend their traditions and essentially attack what is foreign to their

One of these incidents occurs when Marjane is in art school. When the students were told that they needed to wear longer headscarves, Satrapi immediately responded that “as a student of art…I need to move freely to be able to draw.” She further questions “why is it that I, as a woman, am expected to feel nothing when watching these men with their clothes sculpted on but they, as men, can get excited by two-inches less of my head scarf?” here Marjane questions the restrictiveness of the veil and comments on the injustice in Muslim society and the gender inequality. The veil represent the repressions and the gender injustices in Iran. By revolting against the veil Marjane is able to protest the repressions. On hearing Marjanes complaint, the school administrators asked Satrapi to design her own veil. Marjane accepts this offer while still in the confines of the veil. Marjane designs the veil to suit the needs of the students and

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi is a graphic novel that provides insight into a young girl living in Iran during the hardship of war. Persepolis takes place during the childhood of Marjane Satrapi. It gives a background of the Islamic Revolution and the war in Iran. Satrapi attempts to guide herself in a corrupted world filled with propaganda. She tries to develop her own morality concerning religion, politics, and humanity. Satrapi was blessed enough to have high class status and parents who had an open mindset about the world around them. Thanks to her slightly alternative lifestyle, she is able to reconstruct gender norms that society has set by depicting the different ways women resist them. “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others” by Lila Abu-Lughod is an essay detailing the misconceptions surrounding the veil. Through this essay we can see how colonial feminism, the form of feminism in which western women push for a western way of living on their third world counterparts, has shined a negative light on cultures all around the world - particularly Islamic women. The essay shows how women who don’t conform to American societal structures are labeled as women who urgently require saving. Through this essay one can develop a thorough understanding of the veil itself and the many representations it holds to different entities. Although in Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood Satrapi

One of the most controversial topics concerning Muslim women’s rights is the idea of the veil. It is believed by some Muslims that the veil is an Islamic obligation that all Muslim women must adhere to. But nowadays, the veil can have different meanings that are not necessarily religious. In her article “Reinventing the Veil,” Leila Ahmed addresses some of the different meanings that the veil can have. Marjane Satrapi explores one of those meanings in her animated autobiography Persepolis (2008). In Persepolis, Marjane tells the story of her rebellion against the Iranian Islamist regime that takes over Iran, oppresses women, and forces them to wear the veil. What was interesting to me was seeing Marjane wear the veil without being oppressed, although she does not believe in it, and is being forced to wear it. In Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi escapes being a subject to the Iranian Islamist ideology by establishing her individual identity through transforming the veil from a means of oppression into a means of feminist rebellion.

Abayas, shailas, burkas, and chadors: all are forms of veiling in the Middle East, and all are perceived as symbols of oppression and patriarchy by the West. The veil worn by a Middle Eastern woman is striking and beautiful in its simplicity and elegance. The hijab, the most common form of veiling, leaves only the face visible with the neck and hair completely covered. Onlookers are in awe at the mystery and symbolism associated with the many veils created out of fine, exotic silk. But such notions of oppression and patriarchy often associated with veiling are not only inherently biased and ironic – it would be interesting to explore the symbolism behind a mini-skirt or a pair of five-inch heels, no? – but they are also inaccurate. Although veiling has most definitely been used in the Middle East as a “mechanism in the service of patriarchy, a means of regulating and controlling women’s lives” (Hoodfar, 5), it has also been used as a mode for rebellion and self-expression. Marjane Satrapi, an Iranian woman who grew up during the Islamic revolution, resisted the regime and the universalizing nature of the veil in the hope that she could maintain her individual identity whilst communicating her political ideologies. By examining the way in which the veil is represented in Satrapi’s graphic memoir, Persepolis, while also considering the history of veiling in Iran, it will become evident that the veil is not just a political tool used by male chauvinists; it also presents an

Young women’s values in the society are under estimated. From the article Veiled Thread: The Guerrilla Graffiti of Princess Hijab, women are often being asked to have a perfect body shape, a tan skin and blonde hair, and the women nowadays are also wanting to look like the models in the advertisement. Women become a vase for the society; the public pays more attention on their looking instead of their abilities. “Princess Hijab asserts, her dressing up on billboards is a symbolic act of resistance meant to reassert a “physical and mental integrity” against what she called the “visual terrorism” of advertising” (Aburawa, 2010, p.30). Women are judged by both females and males, they believe that females do not have the same strength as males. However, the truth is back in the World War Two, when the men went out for the war, the women left for the country and they were not only

While wearing a metaphorical mask helps a woman hide the ugliness nobody wants to see, a literal mask conceals too much. Men want to see women, especially if they are the correct size with the correct amount of curves; if they reach the right size, arrogance or pride will take away from the physical attraction. The Middle East takes the right to flaunt their beauties away by participating in the custom that most know as veiling (the act of covering with a light gauze cloth). The practice alone seems unimaginable but even scarier, the girls seem apathetic towards the demeaning tradition. Much like India, they brainwash girls to believe in a repulsive custom. They choose to believe they help men resist the temptation of a woman’s body. In Behind the Veil by Elizabeth W. Fernea, a woman attempts to clarify the lack of self-respect: “If I wanted to take it all off (her ababbayah and veil), I would have long ago. It wouldn’t mean as much as it does to you.” (Behind the Veil, Robert Fernea). Covering up the problem does not present triumph, but among the wreckage and turmoil of this wretched tradition, hope remains. They have a stronger force on their side; America will save them from their

In this portrait, the artist has portrayed herself, wearing a black color dress that covers her completely only leaving her face uncovered. Moreover, a poem in Persian language is stated on her face, and a rifle is segregating her face into two components. The artist’s eyes gaze intensely towards the viewers from the both sides. She opted to portray herself as a muslim woman to shed light on her religion and to explain the distinction amongst Islam and western culture. According to Syre, the poem inscribed upon her face narrates the belief of many Iranian Muslim women in Islam. It is their believe that as per Islam, all men and women are equal, and the Chador that covers the woman body from head to feets, leaving her face naked prevents woman from becoming a sexual

The untitled painting by Riley Samels, a young artist in Ohio, truly sends a powerful message relating to the struggles women around the world face. The painting reflects the way women are treated and how they are expected to behave. The painting is headshot of a woman wearing a bright and bold red niqab; a veil worn by muslim women. At first glance, the observer would assume the artist was simply painting a portrait of a muslim woman. However, when looking closely, you realize the artist camouflaged hands as a niqab.

To fully understand street art as a concept in itself, it is vital to explore why the art is made on, and for, the street. According to Chung (2009) art on the street “allows artists a platform to reach a broader audience than traditional art forms”. This is supported by Young (2016) who argues that the “street is the biggest gallery you could ever want”, the author goes on to note that often a “galleries audience is self-selecting and homogenous”- belonging in an “elitist art world”. This implies that unlike classical art in galleries, street art cannot discriminate and is open and available to everyone despite their background or beliefs. Not only does the street allow the art to be widely seen, its accessibility indicates the ideas of

During the mid-1970’s, the process of veiling in Islamic countries such as Egypt and Iran became highly controversial. The veil became the center of intense political debate throughout the countries, creating political tension among the citizens on opposing sides of the argument. Like many other political issues, there was more than one side to the argument. There were various political groups including Liberal Feminists, Islamic Feminists, and Class Feminists, to name a few, who each had their own opinions on the process of veiling. This paper will go in depth on the arguments regarding the process of veiling and my own personal argument in favor of the Liberal Feminist ideology in regards to this debate.

Shirin Neshat is a female Iranian artist born in 1957, she left Iran when she was only 17 years old and moved to the United States, she arrived there a few years before the 1979 revolution, during which the more secular shah was overthrown and replaced by the strict Islamic rule of Ayatollah Khomeini. This puts Neshat in an ideal position to understand and appreciate the changes that have occurred in Iran as a result of this political change, particularly in relation to the social status of women. Neshat takes full advantage of this opportunity, and returns to Iran in 1990 to create a series of photographs known as the Women of Allah, The series embodies the struggle of Iranian women in the current day and age. The

Feminist art sought to elicit a response from its audience in order to get people to acknowledge and discuss feminist issues so that society as a whole could move toward change. By challenging the norms of patriarchal structure – not only within the art community but in everyday life as well – feminist art worked in parallel with the core objectives of feminism. A key component of feminism is confronting the oppression of women, and feminist artists addressed this in many forms, one of which was bringing light to violence perpetrated against women. This theme in feminist art helped to foster a dialogue that forced viewers to talk about violence against women and inspire involvement towards a less complicit society. Feminist art is particularly powerful because it worked to educate its viewers on the extent of this problem, as well as empower and heal victims.

One of the main disputes in the battle of Islamic women’s rights is the conflict over dress. According to a popular Islamic leader and Egyptian television personality, the sight of women is so alluring that it can be “intolerably distracting to men” and can “even

Throughout the years artists have portrayed sexuality in art in many different ways. Artists use different symbols, pictures, words, etc to express sexuality, and the way that artist express sexuality has changed throughout the years. In the 3rd to 1st Century B.C. the Sleeping Hermaphroditos was created by an unknown artist, and was discovered in Rome in 1608. The sculpture is of a woman lying down which is shown by the curvature of her body, but on the other side of her body is male represented by the male genitalia. The sculpture is based on the history of the son of Hermes and Aphrodite, where Hermaphroditos had rejected the advances of the nymph Salmacis. Salmacis was upset about the rejection, so she asked