I have spent much of the past two weeks talking with smart and inspiring women from a huge variety of backgrounds. (Cultural diversity, Sharjah haz it.) The conversation often turns to wearing hijab, a decision that is as individual as each woman wearing it. I think the West has a tendency to see women wearing hijab or abayas or niqabs as a homogenous group, but there is a huge amount of diversity in the kinds of veil worn and the reasons why it is adopted.
iCover is a photo exhibition by Sadaf Syed currently on at the Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilisation. The images are of covered Muslim American women, and it’s beautiful.
My favourite photo was this one of the artist looking at her paintings of a covered superhero.
It reminded me of Shalini Akhil’s wonderful short story ‘Destiny’, about a lungi-wearing Indian Wonder Woman in Growing Up Asian in Australia. (The story is available to read in pdf here.)
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