I also found the article about Neshat in "In the Making" to be very interesting, but for different reasons than my group members. I don't know if this blog is to be used for discussions from other classes, but, I am going to include them. This article spoke of an artist who had an interest and was a part of the Islamic world, as well as the Western world. Her art medium is film and she uses it to depict images of the Islamic world and its people.
I felt that this article echoed a discussion that occured in my Women and Leadership class. Last Thursday, we had a speaker come talk to us who had lived in several Middle Eastern countries as her husband was in the military. She told us many things about the women of those countries and disproved many misconceptions that the west has about oppression of women in the Middle East. Many women in our country believe that the veil is a very oppressive garment, but according to our speaker, some of the women who were them think differently. The speaker told us how she had interviewed many different women and asked their opinion about many different things, including the veil. Some women didn't even care about the veil, in fact, one even said something along the lines of "It doesn't matter if I wear it, or I don't, it's my decision." The answer I liked the best, though, came from a woman who preferred the veil. She said that she liked that people didn't pay attention to her and that she was free to go about her day without people viewing her body. She also added that women of the west invite others to objectify them by the way that they dress themselves.
I felt these two different viewpoints to be very interesting, and, like Asma, am wondering whether or not Neshat thinks that the veil is oppressive, because I got the impression from the article that maybe she thought it was. And, like Kelsey, I am wondering what her views are of multiculturalism, because she seems to speak of her two worlds as separate, not really combining them, or celebrating them together, or separately. It's somewhat confusing, I think....
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Very good post--and thoughtful. Yes, the speaker in the leadership class did talk about the veil not being oppressive to women of the Middle East. I would say to "some." It seems that when it's a choice, women feel free--free from sexual harassment, etc. But this is a long-standing debate between people in western culture and those of Middle Eastern cultures. It's always good to try to see all sides.
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