A recent NY Times article has prompted me to see “The Seen and the Hidden: [Dis]Covering the Veil” at the Austrian Cultural Forum. The exhibit features a collection of contemporary artwork about women donning the veil, especially though not exclusively in the context of Muslim faith.
In Deborah Sontag’s article, “The Intersection of Islam, America and Identity” (June 7, 2009), the author focuses on two artists based in the New York area—one with origins from Pakistani, Asma Ahmed Shikoh, and the other from Iran, Negar Ahkami. The works of these two Asian Americans reveal issues of identity in deeper layers than what I would have imagined before my bare eyes touched them last week. The forum’s official description brushes the surface, “The donning of the veil conveys conflicting ideas of faith, sexuality and public life and thus raises a host of questions and tensions between religion and identity.”
Miss Sontag writes about the parallel progression of the two artists’ personal lives and their art with their coming to America. It is a very touching narrative that prompts one to wonder about how the stories of other women enfold here and overseas. President Obama’s landmark speech in Cairo “at a time of tension between the United States and Muslims around the world” encourages a wider a conversation addressing the many issues, including our policy “to protect the right of women and girls to wear the hijab, and to punish those who would deny it.”
There are also parallel perspectives from the 15 artists in the exhibition. In Negar Ahkami’s “Persian Dolls”, eight nesting dolls are each painted to reflect the progression of a woman’s image from the stern-faced outer doll clad in black chador to the smiling unclad inner one. (Interestingly enough, a photograph of the artwork in the forum’s official pamphlet shows—perhaps, a different version—only five dolls of which the inner doll is not completely naked but, in fact, draped partly by the American flag.)
It is difficult not to liken Miss Ahkami’s artwork to that of another exhibitor, Nilbar Güres, a Turkish Austrian. Her video entitled “Undressing” shows a woman (Soyunma) gradually removing different layers of veil each owned by, or representing, female relatives. Heavy tension is obviously laden with the initial shot where all layers of covering are still intact. Upon the removal of the last veil that is preceded by a rather tentative pause, a genuine smile of relief and joy is finally revealed.
Like Miss Ahkami’s dolls which can also be viewed from right (inner) to left (outer doll), Miss Güres’ video can technically be played back in reverse order. In many parts of the world, the rights of women still tread a backward track. The veil itself is still a stinging symbol of oppression that can only be reclaimed over time. Time alone is not enough. We need more un-tethered discussions especially in societies where women’s rights are still trampled upon and even criminalized. In freer societies, I deeply respect the women who decide to don the veil as a proud assertion of their beliefs and their freedoms. However, they carry the burden of illuminating others of all the ills the wearing of the veil still represents to a vast number of women worldwide.