Exhibit aims to shatter US stereotypes of Is
By ANDREW DeMILLO, Associated Press Writer Thu Jul 3, 7:28 AM ET
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - In the months following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Princess Wijdan Al Hashemi and her friend Aliki Moschis-Gauguet noticed that the only depictions they saw of Muslim women showed figures behind veils, oppressed by their cultures.
Moschis-Gauget said, "'Do you see what's going on the media?... Muslim women are being portrayed as women living behind long veils,'" said Al Hashemi, founder and director of the Royal Society of Fine Arts of Jordan. "She couldn't stand the way Muslim and Arab women were being portrayed."
Al Hashemi and Moschis-Gauguet, president of the Pan-Mediterranean Women Artists Network, turned to the world they knew best to find an answer: the world of art.
To combat what they saw as misperceptions about the Muslim world and Arab nations, the two women teamed up to create a traveling exhibit featuring female artists from Islamic countries. The show "Breaking the Veils: Women Artists From the Islamic World" began its three-year United States tour at the Clinton Presidential Library, where it will be on view through Sept. 14.
The exhibit features works by 52 women from 21 Islamic countries, from Algeria to Yemen. It previously toured 15 European cities and Australia.
Despite the show's title, not all the artists are Muslim. Al Hashemi said some works are by Buddhists, Christians and Hindus from the Arab world.
"When we say the Islamic world, we mean the cultural world ... not the religious world," Al Hashemi said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080703/ap_en_ot/breaking_the_veils
