Women of the Middle East tell Their Story A Palestinian all-female auto racing team, transsexuals in Jerusalem, cluster bomb survivors trying to rebuild their lives, Iranian mother’s of martyrs who visit their son’s grave twice a week and parents in Lebanon who continue to wait for the 17,000 missing to come home. These are among the stories from Realism in Rawiya - a presentation of the first all-female photographic collective to emerge from the Middle East: Rawiya. A collective body of work from photographers Realism in Rawiya (25 January – 20 April) bridges the worlds of documentary and art and is the group’s first major exhibition following their success at the 2011 FORMAT photography festival. Director of Programmes, New Art Exchange, Melanie Kidd, said the show - which has a specific focus on gender and identity - captures the vision of the Rawiya: which translates from Arabic to ‘she who tells a story’. “This exhibition captures and presents rich, diverse, eclectic, first-hand accounts of women from the Middle East. They are stories that both evoke a sense of universal humanity and challenge the status quo of racism and orientalism often presented in mainstream media,” she said. All artists in Rawiya established their individual careers as photojournalists by working for news agencies and publications across the Arab world. By living and reporting in the region, they gained an insider’s view of the extremities of these settings, whilst also observing how their reportage could become reframed in the international media’s final edit of events. Many artists in Rawiya have also lived the stories they tell, like Dalia Khamissy (currently in Beirut) whose work The Missing: Lebanon (2010 – ongoing) echo’s her own experience of her father’s kidnap when she was seven-years old. Despite the wide-range of narratives that feature in the exhibition, Co-curator Saleem Arif Quadri MBE said the works also have similarities that go beyond the artist’s gender. “From the story of cluster bomb survivor and double amputee Mohammed featured in the Survivor series, to the tender Arab body builders featured in Fragile Monsters: Arab Body Building, they all feed into the wider political and social story of the region, one that is often unseen,” he said. The Rawiya photographers, which also include Myriam Abdelaziz (currently in Cairo), Laura Boushnak (currently in Sarajevo), Tanya Habjouqa (currently in East Jerusalem), Tamara Abdul Hadi (currently in Beirut), and Newsha Tavakolian (currently in Tehran) credit pooling resources and talents for their rapidly developing profile throughout the Middle Eastern region and beyond. The work of Rawiya is beyond observation and reflection. It is, as artist Newsha Tavakolian said ‘a way of breathing within the smothering world of censorship.’ Events Details: WHAT: Launch of Realism in Rawiya WHEN: Thursday 24 January TIME: 6PM, exhibition opening 7PM-8PM: Realism in Rawiya co-curator Saleem Arif Quadri MBE leads a conversation with Rawiya photographer Tanya Habjouqa. The talk will explore the accomplishments and challenges this fascinating all-female photographic collective have experienced in their development as photojournalists and artists. WHERE: New Art Exchange, 39-41 Gregory Boulevard, Nottingham NG7 6BE COST: FREE, all are welcome RSVP: [email protected] or call 01159248630 Image credit: © Newsha Tavakolian. Image from Listen series. For more information, further images or to organise interviews please contact Emma O’Neill, Marketing and Communications Manager, New Art Exchange P: 01159248630 e: [email protected] - Editor’s notes – About Rawiya Rawiya is photography collective founded by female photographers from across the Middle East. Rawiya presents an insider’s view of a region in flux balancing its contradictions while reflecting on social and political issues and stereotypes. As a collective, Rawiya’s photographers respect the human dignity of the stories they tell, pooling resources and vision to produce in-depth photo-essays and long-term projects. Rawiya, meaning ‘she who tells a story’, brings together the experiences and photographic styles of Myriam Abdelaziz, Tamara Abdul Hadi, Laura Boushnak,Tanya Habjouqa, Dalia Khamissy and Newsha Tavakolian. About the artists of Rawiya and their work featured in Realism in Rawiya Dalia Khamissy Born in Beirut, Dalia Khamissy’s work revolves around the social and socio-political stories in the Middle Eastern region, documenting mostly the aftermath of Lebanon’s wars and issues concerning women rights. Dalia’s work has been published on the BBC, Aperture Magazine, The Times, Amnesty International, Ibraaz, Le Monde, and Wall Street Journal amongst others. Abandoned Spaces: Lebanon (2007) Dalia describes this collection as ‘not the story of Lebanon, but a story of a war’. At the time of the 2006 conflict in Lebanon, Dalia was working as a photo editor for an international news agency. She witnessed the conflict through the images she edited each day taken by other photographers. Although the news reports stopped transmitting weeks after the cease- fire, it wasn’t until Dalia visited south Lebanon in 2007, she understood the ongoing and devastating impact the attacks had left on the Lebanese people, whose lives had been changed forever. She describes how private family homes, passed on from generation to generation, had been destroyed and turned ‘public’ in just a few seconds of war. The exposed contents of these dwellings – furniture, wallpaper, belongings – laid bare stories and memories of the people who once lived there. To reconcile with what had happened, amongst the chaos, Dalia attempted to document the peace she found in each vacant building, in an effort to return its dignity. The Missing: Lebanon (2010 – ongoing) Dalia was seven-years old when her father was kidnapped in 1981; three days later he was set free. Many years later, she understands her father was luckier than the others. She states: ‘17,000 people remain officially missing in Lebanon while their families still wait for their return. They all disappeared during the Lebanese civil war (1975-90), where they were abducted or killed at the hands of different Lebanese militias, PLO, Syria, Israel or their allies. The kidnapped were from diverse religions, gender, ages and political persuasions. Lebanon, a small country (population of four million), is home to 18 official religious sects. After 15 years of civil war that ended with 144,000 dead and 184,000 wounded, an amnesty law in 1991 not only pardoned all those who took part in the war, but also relieved them from the obligation of testifying and sharing the information they have, including any details on the fate of the missing. Since then, the parents of the missing have been demanding to know the fate of their loved ones. In the hope that their loved ones will one day return home, parents have kept the belongings of their missing: packs of cigarettes, shaving cream, toothpaste and tooth brush, pens and books, cassettes etc. Three to four decades later their homes and these cherished objects continue to reveal their wait for the missing.’ www.daliakhamissy.com Laura Boushnak Laura Boushnak is a Palestinian photographer born in Kuwait. She began her photography career covering news for the Associated Press in Lebanon and later worked as a photo editor and photographer for Agence France-Presse (AFP). Her nine-year wire service experience included covering hard news in conflicts such as the war in Iraq, and the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. Her work has been published in the New York Times, The Guardian, The National Geographic, Le Monde and many more. Since 2008 Laura has been working as a freelance photographer. As an Arab woman, who was raised, educated and who has worked in several Arab countries, she is committed to presenting projects which highlight the position of women in the Arab world. In this exhibition we present two collections by Laura Boushnak. I Read I Write (2009 – 2012) responds to the 2005 UN Arab Human Development Report which indicates that Arab countries collectively have one of the highest rates of female illiteracy in the world. Half of all Arab women are illiterate compared to one-third of men. The collection focuses on the importance of education and the major barriers that the women face in accessing education, such as poverty, cultural constraints, minimum public spending on education and outdated teaching methods. In Survivor (2007 – 2012), Laura focuses on young cluster bomb survivors trying to rebuild their lives. After covering the 2006 Hezbollah-Israeli war for the French News Agency (AFP), Laura was drawn to documenting the plight of those communities struggling to survive in the aftermath of war. After fleeing their homes and seeking refuge during the war, Laura witnessed the added injustice of individuals losing their lives and limbs to the cluster munitions left behind after the conflict. Within the exhibitions we are introduced to Mohammed. Laura states ‘Mohammed lost both legs when he was sitting behind his father on a motorbike and drove over a cluster bomb in the last week of the war. Mohammed, who was 11 at the time, comes from a poor family, which can hardly meet their basic daily needs. He doesn’t go to school anymore and has no job. As days pass, Mohammed’s life is increasingly becoming harder; to a person, whose life’s obstacles were already burdens as a Palestinian refugee living in south Lebanon’. www.lauraboushnak.com Myriam Abdelaziz Myriam Abdelaziz is a French photographer of Egyptian origins, born in Cairo. Focusing on the Middle Eastern and African regions, Myriam searches for stories that overcome physical and cultural barriers to reveal what global communities may have in common. She has exhibited internationally and has been published in Newsweek, Time Magazine, Forbes Magazine and The British Journal of Photography.