Reflections of the Feminism in Contemporary Mural Painting between Occidental and Oriental societies
1.1. Introduction
Feminism is a
group of different social theories, political movements, and moral
philosophies, driven by motives related to women's causes and rights in the aim
of reinforcing developed, stable and strong societies; in general feminism doesn't
mean in any way to stand against men as much as it means standing by oppressed women
worldwide until they get their whole rights back equal to men, especially in
education and employment; worth mentioning here that there is no unified global
version of feminism to represent all feminists; thus, feminism causes can vary from a nation to another, from a
culture to another, depending on woman's suffers, on social ethics and beliefs
and of course, what some activists are seeking for, in one society may be
rejected by other activists in another society and it's also depending on how
feminism itself is strong as an active movement in this society; but in general
and logically, global feminism has a number of common goals like stopping all
kinds of violence against women, demanding for equality in voting, education and employment.
There is no need any
more to talk about the importance of women as communities members or as
societies pillars, they are half of the societies and talking about axioms in
this research may be considered a loss of time; but on the other hand and
despite these mentioned axioms, it is so common in the eastern societies to think
that feminism as a movement is
against men, religion and ethics, which is not right; this misinformation may
be diffused on the hand of anti-feminism
groups or freedom 's enemies to frighten societies of the feminism's idea as if
it's pure danger to the whole family life; therefore, more transparency,
awareness and knowledge are needed to enlighten people in these countries and
to facilitate the efforts of feminism activists; and art, especially visual
arts can play a very eloquent and important role to do this job; also, it is
necessarily to mention here that this research should be considered as just a
little spot light about feminism arts in the oriental societies especially
Egypt, because the subject is full of details and worth more studies to cover
the whole story, for a better understanding and a better continuation .
2. Feminism history
2.1.Brief western feminism history
They say: Art is the mirror of societies; they also say: Art
can be the inspiration for a society; so, between this and that, one cannot
imagine talking about a certain trend of art without talking about the
political, economical and social circumstances that were beyond this art,
especially when it's an activist art; from this point, these papers shall go
further deep into these kinds of historical details which were really
representing a starting point for feminism art, which basically is an activism
art.
Charles Fourier, a Utopian Socialist and French
philosopher, is credited with having coined the word "féminisme" in 1837, [i]as
an expression; it was first known in France in 1872, later in other European
countries and United States of America.
Three waves were historically known about modern western feminism
movements[ii],
the first was during the 19th century and early twentieth century, its focus
was on giving women rights to vote; one of the most important productions
coming after this wave; the remarkable book (The Second Sex) of the French philosopher Simone
de Beauvoir who gave within it a Marxist solution
and a wide view on many of the questions of feminism in 1949.
The second wave was during the late 1960s and it was known
by the "Women's liberation movement" in the United States,
United Kingdom, and other developed countries, the wave continued to fight for
voting rights, for the reform of family laws which
gave husbands control over their wives, and to abolish the "marital
exemption" in rape laws which precluded the prosecution of husbands
for the rape of their wives[iii];
as a wave, it is considered the most significant one among the three feminist
waves concerning its impact on women rights achievements, as well as on art;
thus, this wave had another significant phenomenon called "the feminist
art", through which a different type of art was taking a chance on the
hands of female artists to highlight woman life, art and achievements, away
from the men arts which usually weren't representing women causes nor suffer
worldwide, and that's what the researcher intends to treat in more details
later due to its direct relation with these papers.
As for the third wave, it began in the early 1990s in the
United States of America, and despite that this recent wave is closer to our
contemporary time, despite it was demanding for higher ceiling for women rights
especially concerning sexualities issues, as well as stopping "glass
ceiling" practices that impede women's advancement in developed
economies, despite it was mainly raised to perceive failures of the second wave
and to avoid its mistakes, the third wave was widely opened to internal debates
between difference feminists as well as to loud arguments about equal
treatment for women compared to men, in addition to what was called post-feminism,
all together are not considered as significant points to highlight in this
research which only focuses on the art side without delving deeper in the
feminism debates nor its theory.
In general, and what it really matters to point at in this
part of these papers, that the fear of feminism in conservative societies,
especially closed religious ones has acquired its magnitude from the focus on
the difference of opinions regarding specific points like the sexuality's issues
for instance, while feminism is much more than these issues; basically,
feminism is a human call for stopping all kinds of violence against women,
demanding for equality in voting, education and employment and such
basic social rights, and these basic human calls can't be a threat to any
society, but on the contrary, it's a reinforcement for a better society; so, for
such reasons, maybe the feminism concept has found difficulties on its way to
the eastern part of the world, especially in the Middle East where misunderstood
or misinterpreted religions concepts and old traditions still are the unwritten
constitutions; thus, and as previously mentioned, this misinformation about
feminism may have been diffused on the hand of freedom 's enemies to frighten
societies of the feminism's idea as a whole; therefore, more transparency,
awareness and knowledge are needed to enlighten people in these countries; so,
what is probably more powerful than arts to do this mission? And that's what
these papers try to explore; thus, in the following part one shall highlight feminism
in the Middle East, where Egypt is to be our example for its important location
as a gate between north and south...east and west, cultural influence on the
whole area and also due to its living ongoing feminism experiment especially
when we know that it started so early comparing to the feminism global history.
2.2.Feminism in Egypt
As an artist, one has a number of friends from the east
where the Arab gulf extends to the west where the Moroccan countries exist, and
I always remember some of them telling me more than once: "when I meet
someone from the other "Arab" side and I can't communicate linguistically,
we try to speak to each others in Egyptian dialect and we are good to go!".
From this image, it appears the impact of the Egyptian
culture on what is called "The Arab World", which is not really
Arabic in its different roots nor parts, but it is usually called so.. because
of the common used language after "Islam" has become their basic
common belief; but it worth mentioning here that each country of this world
speaks the Arabic in its own way that may differ widely from one country to
another depending on its historical, cultural and ethnic roots, except that the
Egyptian dialect is very well known for all these Eastern countries because of
so many reasons but basically due to the modern historical influence of the
Egyptian cinema and music industries since the beginnings of the 20th century,
and that's why Egypt was chosen as a
model for the feminism movement in this
research, noticing that this choice doesn't necessarily mean that this model was
applicable in other countries of this part of the world where women might be
suffering from different kinds of problems, thus different aspects of activism
from here to there are also available.
As for Egypt, and comparing to the history of the western
world feminism movement, its dates and its demands, we shall see that Egypt was
almost on a parallel track to this global movement especially during the first
two waves;
In 1805
Egypt started to get rid of the dark age of the Ottoman occupation and
its oppressive feudal system on the hand of
Muhammad Ali Pasha, the Albanian commander who is considered as
the founder of modern Egypt due to the enormous reforms in the military,
economic and cultural changes that he made, more social movements, more opened
windows on the western world especially concerning education and scholarships
for Egyptian students to Europe in almost all fields; then and within a lot of
ongoing historical events, Egypt has fallen in the British occupation with its
capitalism system in 1882, which in spite of its brutality and barbaric
exploitation to the country, it has more or less continued to put Egypt on the
ongoing events world map, and it's worth mentioning here that although the occupation
was British, but the cultural tendencies of the ruling class in Egypt by this
time have always been French, which were evident in the elite's life, elegant
men and women French "etiquette", language, fashion and of course in
their French schools in all Egypt's big cities, which will have its effect on
the feminism activity in Egypt due to the aspiration of this ruling class to
make Egypt similar to Europe, especially France.
So, due to the previously mentioned reasons or to others,
Egypt was on the track of modernity where feminism movement was a necessity to
this track and it was not easy for Egyptian women the transition from one era
called the "Harem" established by the Ottoman culture, where women were
not allowed to leave their homes except under certain conditions and within the
permission of their "men" (fathers, brothers, husbands or even sons)
to the era of education, science, art, employment and enlightenment; but it was
inevitable and on convictional basics, not only by patriot women but also and
more importantly by the help and support of enlightened regime as well as
progressive Egyptian men in the aim of getting back a strong advanced Egypt
after too many years of darkness, colonization and occupation.
There is a diffused info on the internet that the modern
feminism movement in Egypt has started between (1923–1939) as the Egyptian
Feminist Union (EFU) was founded by the former leader of the women's
committee in the Wafd party, Hoda Shaarawi after
her participation in an international Feminist Conference in Rome in 1923 and upon
her return, along with Nabawiyya Moussa and Ceza Nabarwi[iv];
but in fact, one can say that feminism movement has seen the light in Egypt
much before that date, as we have to go back to the year 1873 when Jeshm
Afet Hanimefendi, Khedive Ismail Pasha's wife has inaugurated the
first girl public school in Egypt by her own money, worth mentioning here that Jeshem
was a slave one day before being liberated then married to Khedive Ismail,
which might explain from where her determination has been born; so, this school
could be considered the first light of feminism in Egypt because before that
time, girls were not allowed to get education except maybe some girls hobbies
to be taught in home; such initiative has encouraged other numerous elite to send
their girls to schools, and later to sponsor and support girls education; the
school was inaugurated after the publication of
the book of Refaa El-Tahtawy,
the well known Egyptian writer, teacher,
translator, Egyptologist and renaissance intellectual who has talked carefully
about such concept in his book "Al-Murshid al-Amin lil Banat wa al-Banin"
(The Faithful Guide for Girls and Boys) published in 1873.[v]
And this is really how far we should go while searching
about feminism history in Egypt, as it is clear; it was even before the famous revolutionary
books of Kassem Amin, the well known Egyptian intellectual writer,
"Liberation of the Woman" in 1899 and "The New Woman" in
1901; these famous books which were considered by some historians as the first
action of feminism in Egypt while they were actually coming after the
enlightened perception of Refaa El-Tahtawy in 1873[vi],
who was himself one of the first scholarship beneficiaries to Paris.
Thus, it is evident now to understand that the Egyptian
Feminist Union (EFU) founded after 1923, was actually founded in a kind of
enthusiastic well prepared environment for changes since at least the end of
the 19th century, even-though these changes were not fast nor
accurate, but it was obvious that a new era is about to begin for the Egyptian
woman and much more before other women in the Arab area; changes that would
spread in almost all kinds of fields: literature, cinema, theatre, visual arts,
journalism, universities, law, sports and eventually politics!
But by having a look on this great history with its strong
start and then having another look on the present, it seems that something is
not correct, something is unbecoming; how could there be such a very powerful
modern start with such average or number of suffering women now in Egypt or in
the Arab world in general!? And when we say in Egypt or in the Arab world, we don’t mean
women in cities and high level of society, but we mean women and girls in low,
poor and un-educated levels in the social pyramid of these countries.
The answer has to be in the time between these two ages,
there was an interruption in the rhythm of feminism movement in Egypt and that
might has started to happen in the sixties and seventies of the 20th
century; as details are many and papers shall not go deep in these details, but
in general, the cursor of the feminism's activity in Egypt has started to get
down after 1952, when the army seized power in Egypt, "The Ruling
Revolution Command Council" ordered the dissolution of all political
parties including all independent women's movements; despite that, and
despite Gamal Abdel Nasser has initiated "state feminism", more
rights have been gained by women during his regime like the right of voting and
running for elections in the 1956's Constitution for the first time, it seems
that at this time there were remaining strong solid activists like Dorria Shafik
who thanks to them, such gains have been obtained. But one believe that with
the obstruction of the feminism activity itself things were not to continue on
the same previous track; in time, there was no more enough groups, parties or coherent
entities of activist voices to stand in the face of deterioration that appeared
later, there was always some individual voices here or there, but there were no
more strong built feminism movements; in the seventies, a stringent Islamic trend
has started to invade Egypt due to a lot of reasons and circumstances; in
general, it started to happen when Egyptian
presidents started to make reconciliation with Islamists, especially the Muslim
Brotherhood; Gamal Abdel Nasser was the first to do it, but then he disagreed
with them and began to arrest a large number of their leaders especially after
their attempt to assassin him in 1954; then president Al-Sadat who opened
the doors of the prisons, allowed the Brotherhood to move in streets and
villages and rural areas where they could gain control on the majority of the simple
poor people across the religious and political platforms; also by this time, some
Egyptians have emigrated to the Arab Gulf land for oil business and big money..
then returned loaded with a kind of severe religious ideas and life concepts,
their return was also within the new political circumstance provided by Al-Sadat
reconciliation with Islamists; all of these events, situations and more have
come together to put the Egyptian woman under a kind of focus, "oppressive
focus" if the expression could be used; thus, the woman in the eyes of
severe Islamists is a kind of probable danger which means she has to be pulled
back to her home one way or another; it's one of the most patriarchal
communities in the history of humans; And while once before, we could read in
the feminist journal "L'Egyptienne" published by the EFU,
written in French, Ceza Nebarawi, the journal
editor stated in 1927: "we the Egyptian Feminists have a great respect for our religion and we
aim to see it practiced in its true spirit"[vii],
things have been different in the seventies and upcoming years.
But between the absence of this enlightened vision of Ceza
and her colleagues as a strong structure supported by the regime itself, the
ruling class of Egypt and the elite (Which is the main idea in here) in the
beginning of the 20th century and between the wide, wild invasion of the
radical Islamic culture in the seventies of the same century, feminism in Egypt
as a movement has lost a lot even with what it was called "Islamic
Feminism"; there were different tries all over the time from different
individual voices or civilian associations or national councils, not to mention
the efforts of the presidents Al-Sadat and Mubarak wives, Gehan
Al-Sadat and Suzanne Mubarak who despite the corruption that was
running during their regimes, they have offered some privileges to the Egyptian
women especially on the person status code and social developing levels; but if
there wasn't the continual economic crisis, the invasion of the radical Islamic
culture, selfishness of the "new rich" class, the rising age of
marriage, the depression of youth..Etc, one can say that Egyptian woman could
definitely have more rights by our time, could definitely suffer of less depression
or domestic violence, Female genital mutilation or street harassment.
And despite all of this and that, there are some good points
from which Egyptian women can re-start again, everyday and on every way because
she didn’t lose all what she has gained before this deterioration time; as in
the European and some advanced societies women still suffer for instance of the
inequality in salary while in Egypt most of women, especially in the
governmental jobs, have the same salary as men in the same employment; also,
comparing to some Arab world countries, Egyptian woman doesn't have to get a
permission from her husband nor father to have her own passport or to leave
country; putting a veil is not obligatory as well, and so on for such kinds of
social and civil rights, Egyptian woman is in almost every field of work,
employed or managing, not to mention the presence of a lot of active feminism
militants and associations, which gives hope for a better continuation, on both
levels, regional and global, a better appropriate continuation for the ancient
history of Egypt, where woman was a respectable and enabled society member in
all living aspects, where people were never tending to extremism, as an
intermediate people, they tend always to moderation in all religious aspects.
3.
Feminism art
3.1.Feminism art movement in Occident
It has to be clear first that the idea of drawing or painting
or sculpturing women figures by male or female artists is not necessarily a
feminist trend or activity; there is sometimes a kind of confusion about this; whereas,
so many artists have been inspired by the woman's world and its visual beauty,
her body, her hairs, and this is not necessarily a feminist art, actually, it
could be sometimes considered as an anti-feminist art principles, especially
when it tends to show the woman as an object, only for eyes or sexual pleasure,
nothing more nothing less. On the other hand, it is considered sometimes that
any made art by female artists is a feminist art because it's made by creative
women which help reinforcing women in the field of art, but the researcher
tends to think that a female artist who is presenting marvelous pieces of
still-life painting for instance can't be considered a feminist artist; thus,
in this research a feminist female artist or a pro-feminist male artist is the
one who is presenting a feminism cause through his art, even if it's in
indirect symbolic unseen way; and in this research, there will be a kind of
focus on female feminist art.
The most important change produced by the war, however, had
less to do with the jobs women held and more to do with the identity of the
women who went to work[viii].
In the 20th century, when men came back home
after war, whether world war I (1914-1918) or world war II (1939 -1945), but
especially after the world war II, they found out that their women have taken a
new road of life, many of them had jobs,
they were left alone for the whole life responsibility, it must have been hard
of course, but one way or another, every independent woman started to re-find
herself and her own identity as a society member. Also, some of them have
became artists and many of those were signified as a difference makers in the
field of art; thus, before this time, almost everything about women in art was
expressed and presented by men; sometimes in men's art, women were figured as
evil, reasons of troubles and even Satan's allies, but in women's art, things
were different, a female artist shall treat her own story, memories, life
difficulties as a woman as well as a mother or whatever with an eye of her own
self, she shall also present her causes and announce her demands or other
demands in the name of other women in her society or other ones; not to mention
that in the ancient or middles ages, even when it was a woman who has created the
time arts, they were probably anonymous, meaning that their art productions
were not signed; for instance, the studies about the Paleolithic cave paintings
which often have human hand prints, 75% of which are identifiable as women's[ix].
Thus,
the postwar periods witnessed the brilliance of female artists, like the
feminist German Dada artist Hannah Höch (1889-1978) as an example of post war I,
she was one of the group's pioneering photomontage artists, Höch critiqued the
role of women, beauty standards, marriage, the politics of her home country,
Germany, and the oft-misogynist
Dada group itself,[x] Or
the American visual artist Nancy Spero (1926-2009) as an example for the post
war II feminist female artists, who chronicled wars and its apocalyptic
violence; thus, women were living wars, maybe in the second line after men as
warriors, but never less horrible or bloody, as a human experience, it shall
always be a motif for an artist to express hard times and misery; anyway, this
transaction phase for female feminist visual artists was not easy nor too fast,
but one can say that the whole circumstances had created the convenient
atmosphere for this feminism art movement to grow up and develop itself in
almost around the whole world; therefore, during the seventies of the twentieth
century, and as mentioned within the second western feminism wave, there was a
flourishing real feminist art movement, not only in the visual arts, but also
in different fields especially in music and fortunately in the music industry,
which was a real jump in the world of feminism because its ability to support
the feminist music to cross borders and to reach people, especially women all
over the world loaded with hope, encouragement and enthusiasm. These feminist
art movements, all together were to connect feminism activists globally due to
the compassion and understanding spirit effects of art itself as a common human
language; there are too many female artists to mention on this occasion, it
would be too much for the research's aim to go for it, but one cannot drop
names like the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo (1907- 1954) whom her work at
her time wouldn't be considered feminist, but later it has been seen as one of
the most important images of feminist art in this time and this spot of the
world; later with the feminist art history's beginnings in the late 1960s, one
should mention names like the Yugoslavian-born performance
artist Marina Abramović, the French multi-media artist Niki de Saint Phalle, the Americans female
artists Barbara Kruger, Sherrie Levine and Judy
Chicago and too many other artists not only in traditional visual arts but
also in different new art medias like video, performance and installation arts.
In brief, women
artists, motivated by feminist theory and the feminist movement,
demanded for equality in representation which was codified in the Art
Workers' Coalition's (AWC) Statement of Demands, which was developed in 1969
and published in definitive form in March 1970. The AWC was set up to defend
the rights of artists and force museums and galleries to reform their
practices, to encourage female artists to overcome centuries of damage done to
the image of the female as an artist by establishing equal representation of
the sexes in exhibitions, museum purchases and on selection committees[xi];
Not to mention that feminism has shared
some interest with postmodern art philosophy which could be seen in speech
acts, and this has probably helped the diffusion of feminism art movement, not
only on the hand of female activists, but also with the help of pro-feminism
especially in the contemporary art era, as we can see in the words of Jeremy
Strick, director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, who
described the feminist art movement as "the most influential international
movement of any during the postwar period"[xii].
3.2.Feminism in Occidental Contemporary Mural Painting
Visual arts in general, may be the most expressive arts about
human life since the primitive era, when man started to give birth to different
forms using mud under his feet to create symbols and magical protecting totems
in his wild environment, or when he created drawings or mural paintings on the
walls of caves to reflect the various creatures and the wildlife around him,
and that was too long before the human virtues 'writing and reading', which
shows how important these visual arts and deep they are as a relationship
between humanity and the expressing themselves, this visual communication has no
doubt helped one way or another to establish different languages around the
world, to communicate among
individuals and different communities and even through time.
Mural painting is one of these communication tools through
time and space, through which an artist can bring his idea or his group's ideas
to the whole world around; mural painting, especially in public areas or as a
street art has doubled effects on people and societies; thus, it's not to be imprisoned
in galleries nor museums where too many people have no access; therefore, mural
painting as a public art can play a great role to bring the feminism causes to
the street and to the whole society; it can awaken minds, release freedom and
inspire women around the world to revolt and to demand their rights as well as reminding
the whole society about the women's rights as humans; So, feminism shall find a new way to
people through murals, mural painting, graffiti, street or public arts,
whatever is the name of this art, it shall be an eloquent medium to express all
women demands around the world after too many years of ignorance and injustice.
Not too far from the previously talked about history of
feminism art movement; actually, within the 2nd feminism wave, in
the late 1970s, Sandra Fabara or as known Lady
Pink or "first lady of graffiti" originally from
the Ecuador, has been known as one of the first graffiti and mural female
artist based in New York City, (figure1).
Figure1. Lady Pink,
Graffiti artist.[13]
Despite graffiti's beginning as an art history has nothing to
do with the "hip-hop" music that appeared in the United
States in the 1970s , so many historians,
especially music historians have considered graffiti as one of 'the four
elements of hip-hop: rapping, break-dancing, graffiti art,
and deejaying.'[i]Worth
mentioning here that Lady Pink herself
says: "I don’t think graffiti is hip-hop. Frankly I grew up with disco
music[ii],
she was saying that as an objection to what was said, that graffiti is
understood as a visual expression of rap or hip-hop music; as a researcher, I
think that hip-hop is too young to be considered as graffiti's source; in fact,
graffiti has always been there since the dawn of human activity especially when
we notice that the "graffiti" meaning as a word is just scratching or
random drawing or painting on any unprepared surface with any coloring or
writing technique and with no permission of no one especially in streets and on
walls, which makes it a vandalism action; but anyway, it is obvious for one to
conclude that with the new era of hip-hop music that grew fast and worldwide,
graffiti has become more known for all societies as a street art, people were
longing for change and interaction in their societies, especially youth; More
or less, graffiti as a street art has flourished, and with the widespread of
this type of arts, a graffiti association was established in1972 in New York on
the hands of Hugo Martinez[iii],
and despite it was and still can be considered as a vandalism action, it has
helped to diffuse a lot of common causes among societies, it has helped
marginalized voices to reach each others as well as reaching the other
societies levels including politics and politicians; feminism was among the
most important causes graffiti has helped, and despite that the identity of the
artist is usually kept secret in graffiti works, some names have seen the light
as icons in their field and to become legal muralists who have their own murals
company; little by little, with the worldwide contemporary art concepts
especially the freedom of expression, some ideas had to change, people were
more ready to see more arts on their streets and the "vandalism
action" of graffiti has sometimes become a considerable pieces of art,
especially in the contemporary arts, when mural painting in all its techniques
has become a legal form of graffiti, when urban galleries, governments and
authorities started themselves to hire street artists for legal and technically
prepared murals in public or chosen areas
or to open more spaces, events, competitions for such kind of arts and
activities; and concerning feminism in graffiti, it has grown faster, had even
reached the level of organizing some female street art events as it is the way
in the annual event "Femme
Fierce" in London, on the occasion of the International Woman Day; some
graffiti female artists have even their works featured in exhibits in galleries
and museums; and despite it was and still known as a man's corner due to the
hard circumstances artists should work under, many women have find themselves
in this field, they were and still often subjected to all kinds of harassment,
but they continued to prove themselves, and they were called female writers
like male writers were called, because they were usually using tags, words as
brief messages and letters in their paintings which usually were applied by
aerosol can paints which is faster and easier in such moments of running from
the police; one can mention other female subway writers after Lady Pink
and her continuation during the1980s, such as Lady Heart, Abby, Chic. SS,
Dawn, Anna and Bambi, Lady Bug[iv];
that was in the USA, as for Europe, 'while hip-hop was closely linked with
graffiti culture, punk also adopted the idea of graffiti to help spread
messages. UK anarcho-punk band Crass regularly had stencil-like images on their
releases and undertook a graffiti stencil campaign on the London
Underground system in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, with anti-war,
anarchist, feminist and anti-consumerist messages being popular'[v];
in another spot of Europe, 'German street art scene, with its
overwhelming numbers of experimental, highly innovative and perfectionist
artists, has always been keeping up with those of New York, Paris and
London. The city of Berlin, with its rich graffiti history (just
think of the 1980s graffiti decorated Berlin Wall with its politically engaged
murals and bubbly lettered slogans), is one of the most ‘bombed’
cities in Germany or even in Europe'[vi];
therefore, Berlin was once called "Graffiti Mecca of the urban art
world" by the art critic Emilie Trice[vii];
Even France that seems sometimes less interested in graffiti,
some graffiti artists had their names shining such as Miss.Tic with thirty years
career as a female street artist[viii].
(Figure2).
Figure2. (The man is the
past of the woman).
Figure3. A "Stick Up
Girlz" mural, Australia 2010 [22]
Lucy R. Lippard (writer, art
critic, activist and curator from the United
States) argued in 1980 that feminist art was “neither a style nor a movement
but instead a value system, a revolutionary strategy, a way of life.” This
quote supports that feminist art affected all aspects of life.[i]
By time, more feminist female artists have joined the club of
this cause, new contemporary groups have gathered themselves, especially
through internet which made connections easier from the East to the West, one
can mention the "Stick Up Girlz" feminist muralists group. (Figure3).
Actually, in the occidental societies, in Latin America as well,
feminism and feminist art including mural paintings, public and street arts
have gone fast after the nineties of the twentieth century and so far; it is so
hard for this limited papers to present all categories and styles concerning feminist
mural painting in occidental world, but one can say that, in their works,
female feminist artists have used everything can be imagined to use of
traditional symbols of women like hearts, red lipsticks, and other known visual
female symbols (Figure4), but they have also used untraditional symbols or imaginary
themes (Figure5), poems and literature texts were used too, especially from
some icon works like the "The Second Sex" book of the French philosopher Simone de
Beauvoir's.
Figure4. Traditional symbol
of feminism, Latin America
Figure5. Untraditional
graffiti, unknown artist
Female graffiti writers have knocked every closed door behind which
lays a problem in silence, almost all occidental women sufferings have been
treated through female muralists, especially sexuality issues which took a lot
of attention by European and American feminist activists; sometimes, some of
their works were bold and hard to be accepted by ordinary people or
conservative families, and this is a point that the research would come back to
it later especially in the feminist mural painting in Egypt, but it must be
considered that art isn't always about soothing and calming, sometimes it has
to be disturbing in an aesthetic way that could awaken people and push them to
think and react especially in causes and demands, but it doesn't mean that art,
especially public art should cross its borders as a message to become an
offense or a cause of hurt to anyone on any level, otherwise, it's a new kind
of vandalism, psychological vandalism; worth mentioning here what has been said
once by Lady Pink: “Public work has a responsibility,” “It has to be family
friendly, you have to take the community into consideration”[i],
and maybe this difference between ultimate freedom of expression and calculated
aesthetic visions can be seen in two kinds of murals: the first as a night fast
graffiti with no permission of no one, and the second as a prepared mural
painting design under the permission of any authority, the second would not
probably allow a loud voice message that could hurt some people around.
But in general, it is logic to understand that what could be
accepted by occidental societies, yet could be so hard to be accepted or even
left in peace in the oriental societies; even for some graffiti works executed
by Lady Pink whom we have just mentioned her quote about public
art responsibility, despite of her quote, for instance what she or any other
artist shall depict in a direct way about the woman intimate body parts or
about sexuality itself (figure 6), it can't find a place in the Orient streets;
and even if a graffiti writer would have the courage to do it, it shall be
erased instantly the day after; the sexuality issues in feminist art in
occident are not too far from similar issues in Orient, but it is the way of
looking at these issues that matters; religions and traditions in the east are
still so strong and dominating that we can consider them as an unwritten
constitution; If a painter have a nude piece of work in a private gallery, he
couldn’t and wouldn't paint a similar one on any of the street walls; thus,
Oriental graffiti writers should always use indirect and smart ways to handle
sensitive subjects in their street arts, and that's what we are going to talk
about in the next part.
Figure6.
Christina Angelina, a Venice-based multi-media artist [25].
2.1.Feminism in modern and contemporary art in Orient
(Egypt as a model)
If anyone will type "Egyptian feminist art" on
Google search browser, one shall find so many results for a specific period
which almost has began in the year 2011 with the January 25th public
revolution, and it's almost all about street arts including public mural
painting and graffiti, which we will talk about it later, but before doing this
we must pose few questions: what about the years before this date? Was there
any kind of feminism art movement in Egypt since the decline of feminism
activity in 1952, as previously explained in 2.2? If yes, what kind of arts?
Answers of these questions can draw to us the environment outline
that synchronized this Egyptian feminist street arts because nothing is created
from nothing; and in order to answer these questions, it was even so hard to
find any study on the subject, almost all studies and references that the
researcher has managed to find were about feminism history itself in Egypt or
about female artists, but not on the reflections of feminism in visual arts before
the January 25th , 2011, and this is as mentioned before in the
research's introduction, requires more studies about the subject, even if there
were other references, they are not enough for such important and rich subject.
So, about feminism in modern visual arts in Egypt, one can say
that there was a kind of trend of feminism, not so clear or conspicuous, not as
strong as the occidental case, but it did exist.
For instance those Egyptian artists who were depicting women as
a mother, as a muse or as a lover and of course as a symbol for any abstract
positive or good ideas like fertility or generosity or tenderness may be
considered feminist artists too, because they are aiming to present the woman
as a source of power or inspiration or even as a national symbol by depicting
Egypt as a female figure, starting for example with the famous sculpture of Mahmoud Mokhtar "Renaissance of
Egypt" "Nahdit Misr" in 1928, in which
he imagined Egypt as a local woman who stands up while leaning against a sphinx
as a symbol of rising up nation while being based on a great history; in the
researcher's opinion, such a visual treatments don’t treat or handle feminism in
a direct way like we can see in the occidental societies, especially concerning
the direct depiction of shapes or forms of female and male sexual organs, these
Egyptian artists don’t seem to be artivists
or feminist artists for some critics especially occidental ones, but they may
be, especially in the opinion of the researcher; they are militants for the
woman's rights, standing by her side until she gets rid of any kind of
oppression, negative discrimination or injustice, but only in an indirect way that
may be more appropriate in an oriental society which is known for its love of
symbols and indirect expressive arts, a society that may alienate any explicit
visual messages which can lead to a reversed result against feminism cause itself,
as if feminism would be the reason of any social degradation, a society that
has a special respect and sacredness for religions and traditions.
Thus, to talk about feminism in the Egyptian contemporary
mural painting and as said before, one must go deeper to the modern art
history; briefly, there was as mentioned a big feminism trend in the modern
history of Egypt, started with the Mohamed Ali's successors and declined with
the Gamal Abdel Nasser's regime; between this time and
that, there was a lot of reflections of feminism in many living sides, but
visual arts were not really this engaged to the idea of fighting for the women
rights, not as an art movement, at least not in a direct obvious case as far as
the researcher knows of; this situation has continued within and after Gamal
Abdel Nasser's time, except maybe in some individual artists
works, such as the well known Egyptian painter Inji Aflatoun (1924–1989) who
was a female Egyptian painter and activist
in the women's movement. She was a "leading spokesman for the
Marxist-progressive-nationalist-feminist spokeswoman in the late 1940s and
1950s", as well as a "pioneer of modern Egyptian
art" and "one of the important Egyptian visual artists"; she
was arrested and secretly imprisoned during Nasser's roundup of communists
in 1959.[i] Beside her passion for
nature and her concerns that appeared in her paintings about woman in the
Egyptian society, her paintings in prison are the most captivating and the
portraits of women inside the prison have the most expressive face with eyes
full of horror.[ii]
In a fast review for the history of Egyptian female painters
starting in the 1st half of the twentieth century, and apart from the work of the
feminist Inji Aflatoun, there were a lot of female brilliant
artists that maybe.. the man's history hasn’t been fair to them; among them and
concerning our subject "feminism art", we can mention: Tahia Halim,
Zeinab Abdel Hamid, Gazibiah Serry and Zeinab
Al-Seguiny, they were all very important and remarkable female
artists in their ages, but, yet, as a researcher, in their arts, one couldn’t
feel them as clear feminist artists, except maybe for Zeinab Al-Seguiny whom in
her paintings we could see and feel the inner psychological struggle of women
on their unique faces, between tenderness, women concerns and emotions, she
could possibly be considered on the track of feminism; and also one can mention
the originally Bulgarian female artist "Visella Farid"
who lived in Egypt and was fan of the Egyptian woman with all her concerns and
hard life, especially in the countryside[iii].
Later in the contemporary Egyptian arts, and within the
nowadays open space thanks to the internet and the different calls of freedom,
the return of independent civil associations, the appearance of individual
militants in the domain of feminism, politics and literature such as the
activity of someone like Nawal Al-Saadawy since the 2nd
half of the twentieth century, also the looking forward of art academies in
Egypt for the contemporary arts concepts and other global political and
economic factors, we can say that there is a new era for Egyptian feminism in
many life sides: literature, theatre, politics, arts..etc, between male and
female visual artists, but especially among female artists from different art specializations;
concerning the male ones, one can mention Ebrahim El-Dessouky
and Walid Ebeid, the first is using the world of the woman and
her body as a visual icon, the second is going deeper through her inner space
whether psychologically or physiologically as well as her relationship to the
man and it's a quite interesting vision to focus on, but not in this research
which should focus on female artists and mural painting; as for the female contemporary
artists, a lot of them are concerned about Egyptian women case, whereas, each
one of these artists is one of these women, living in a society that has been
for approximately 30 years under the stress of severe religious trend and the
lack of feminism supporting as previously explained in the end of 2.2 section; their
concerns are mostly general and overall, meaning that in their art we cannot
see them engaged directly with the Egyptian woman suffer cases such as:
domestic violence, female genital mutilation, street harassment,
prostitution, sexism…etc; and despite that,
we can say that the idea of militancy in their work exist, there is a kind of
compassion with the woman in general, especially the Egyptian woman in her
total struggling life, sorrows, resistance and hard duties (mentioning here
that at least 35% of Egyptian families are supported by women), all her
problems and causes, through their works, their treatment for the woman's body,
eyes-look, positions as a body language, through all of this and that, a viewer
can imagine seeing an indirect regard for something like the harassment problem
for instance, or for the female genital mutilation or other sexual issues to a woman,
who is always bearing burdens and concerns about her body and her life with
this body in her watching society; on this track, we can mention some of these
female artists such as: Hend Adnan, Fayrouz Samir, Reham
Al-Saadany, Asmaa Al-Nawawy, Randa Fakhry,
Mervat Al-Shazly, Shaimaa Sobhy, Eman
Osama and Hend Al-Falafly; in their works we can
see the woman and sometimes her partly naked body as a visual icon and it's a
kind of feminism too, but not in a direct way; worth mentioning here that
almost all of these male or female artists exhibit their works in Egyptian private
galleries or enclosed museums, not in public.
As for other artists like the Egyptian contemporary artist Ghada Amer, who was
born in 1963 in Cairo and
immigrated from Egypt in the age of 11, she is a multimedia artist, her work
frequently addresses issues of femininity, sexuality, postcolonial identities,
and Islamic culture; her work is feminist, subverting the traditionally
masculine genre of painting, and its rejection of the norms of female sexuality,[iv] one can obviously notice that she could have
managed to free her mind from all kinds of censorship to express her ideas
boldly and sometimes in a transparent
way, whether we agree or not with the artist point of view regarding some
issues, it would be logic to
understand her openness of expression in multiple different ways probably
because she is living in occidental societies where such total freedom of
expression is available, were subjects can be treated "directly" and with
no fear nor embarrassment, and most important where people themselves are ready
to see, accept and admire her work.
Anyway
this fast over-view we have been through about feminism in the modern and
contemporary art in Egypt is absolutely not covering the whole story, but it
was essential for better seeing the whole image concerning the environment
before the big-boom of feminist street arts in Egypt and which popped up in the
recent 5 years.
2.2.Feminism in Oriental contemporary mural painting (Egypt
as a model)
Apparently,
what modern and contemporary visual art in Egypt has presented for and about
women, wasn't enough for serving the causes of feminism in the Orient or
specifically in Egypt, despite how strong , coherent or passionate it was, it
just was not good enough for the feminism causes themselves; maybe that was due
to the new era with its requirements and challenges facing the woman of the age,
maybe because this modern and contemporary art was presented only for the
elite, enclosed inside galleries and museums, while there is a burning
situation in streets of Egypt, where nobody has the courage to talk about women
problems or suffers directly and with knowledge; and here have come the role of
street arts.
In a
country like Egypt, and as an oriental society, women and till now have a lot
of causes to struggle for, like for instance: domestic violence,
female genital mutilation, street harassment, prostitution, sexism,
marriage before the legal age for girls, especially in rural areas, the general
dominance of men and boys on girls' lives especially in low and poor levels
where they may be subjected to a huge oppression; so, with such kinds of sufferings
and causes, art also needs to deal, these are some of the causes not expressed
or reflected directly in many art works, near or far, one way or another,
Egyptian feminist art saw how strongly it needs to get closer to the society's
own problems, to break the silence and overpass the
indirect romantic way of expressing such problems, even if not in a total
direct way, but at least with more transparency than what the galleries and
museums art has presented.
Briefly, in
2011, with the Egyptian revolution, all kinds and sorts of self expressing
found their ways to the street, where people, especially youth spent days and
nights, it was a great chance for them to present and announce their demands,
not only to the ruling regime, but also to the rest of citizens who probably
are not in the knowledge stream, who are living simply and sometimes naively,
who were suffering in silence without understanding a lot, here appeared the
need for graffiti art and mural expressions with all its tools: figure drawing,
colors, stencils, spray cans, quotes, proverbs, literature extracts and
caricature as well, all these tools have helped to make messages clear and
direct, even if it seems sometimes as an illustration in a story book, all tools
were there to answer the call of freedom and the knowledge light.
During this revolution years, there was and since its
beginning a lot of ebb and flow operations between youth in the streets and the
different successive ruling regimes as well as their governments; within these
operations, many horrible events happened, some people, especially youth were
killed and some girls and women were brutally harassed or assaulted in the
crowds of the street manifestations; these events brought to the stage the
horror that each girl is living in her life in general, as an oriental girl,
she should always keep her virginity and her pure reputation, which has became
in these events a weapon against her and as a threat to her for not taking part
in the manifestations, because when women take part in manifestations, they
become a strong motif for men to do the same; not to mention the problem of
street harassment that almost every Egyptian woman or girl was and still living
since about 20 years, with the continual economic crisis that caused a kind of
difficulty for youth to get married in a society where marriage is the only legal
channel for sexual needs, beside the lack of ethics and education concerning
such issues; all of these and that were ready to appear in the new street arts especially
the mural painting and graffiti as a new possible public, fine and even
beautiful outlet through which lost children of the street or ordinary people
have taken part with the graffiti writers and street artists, it was a general enthusiastic
and exceptional atmosphere that all of Egyptians have lived; the most important
beneficiary of this situation was the exit of visual arts to the streets in an
interactive atmosphere that could never happen through the galleries nor
museums; even systematic or official mural painting which was present in the
Egyptian streets before this revolution and starting in the late seventies of
the twentieth century, it had not this interaction advantage, it was only
answering the call of street decorating or national calls or heritage recall;
as for the graffiti before this revolution, it was almost all about pilgrim
trips and religious ceremonies or sermons; in general, mural painting and
graffiti before this last revolution, neither of them has ever been this
enthusiastic or active especially concerning women and the feminism causes, never
this frequently or sincerely, street arts in this revolution were given birth
from the ongoing events, day by day, to objection and protest; Unfortunately, a
lot of these graffiti, if not all of them, were abolished, but before being
erased, they have been documented on the internet different sites, sometimes
with unknown artists names.
One of the most interesting ripe fruits of this feminism
graffiti movement in Egypt, is the activity of female graffiti writers in a
country that has been trying to reject the religion extremism, a country where
women were on the top of sacred personalities in its ancient history; so, with
the new revolutions events, more feminist projects were created, more feminist
associations have announced themselves as supports and aid sources for Egyptian
women and girls, graffiti and mural painting were some of their tools to reach
their goals, whether through female artists or pro-feminist male artists and
graffiti writers like the well known "El-Zeft" (figure7) , especially
during the Muslim Brotherhood ruling that lasted for one year and on which
fears were burning for the women rights.
In this context, we can mention some female graffiti writers: "Miss
Azarita""Maliket Gamal El-Azarita"[v], her
real name is Aya Tarek, a young Egyptian female graffiti
artist and one of the "Artists Revolution Association" which has
announced itself during the January 25th revolution and which was
one of the most important organizers of visual street arts activities; we have
also other famous female graffiti artists: Hend Kheira, Hanaa Al-Degham, Bahia
Shehab; As for Mira Shihadeh who depicted the famous mural of
"circle of hell" in 2014 depicting the assault incident that happened
in 2013, her most recognizable piece is depicting a girl in heels with her hand
on her hip uses a can of spray paint to drown miniaturized figures coming
toward her. She has painted multiple versions of this graffiti; sometimes the girl
is veiled, other times her hair flows free, sometimes she’s dressed in red,
other times in white, and in others
she’s just a silhouette. But in every edition, she wrote the words “no to
sexual harassment” in Arabic beneath
the outpouring of paint from her can[vi], (figure8).
Figure7."Nefertiti"by
El-Zeft Cairo, 2012
Figure8.graffiti
by Mira Shihadeh
Many of the murals and street artworks created have been
supported by newly formed graffiti and street art organizations, determined to
foster social change with just paint. Artist and activist Merna Thomas cofounded the community (Noon El Neswa) in 2012 as a way to combat; the group launched their project
“Graffiti Harimi,” which means "female graffiti", graffiti campaign
that created stencils of powerful Egyptian women alongside text advocating for
women’s equality[i]. What is really remarkable
about this diffused group of graffitis in the country, that it was using the
positive fame of the most iconic female stars in the Egyptian movies and singing
domains, they were all respected and beloved by the Egyptian, all in black and
white just like their "belle époque" movies or songs, with a short
message below or ahead, the message is usually about empowering girls and women
in general, about her equality to man, reminding the whole society how a woman
could be strong and great just like a man, raising the value of women in the
eyes of the society, not necessarily about a specific incident and that's a
good idea, because empowering women doesn't have to wait until a bad incident
or a political news happen, but it should be a continuous method, especially
concerning the feminism points of weakness in the society. (Figures 8,9,10&11).
Figure8.
I am the one who opened the sluice (Shadia, Egyptian star singer & actress)
Figure9
. Art is not forbidden (Om Kolthoum, Egyptian star singer)
Figure10.
Long live Free Egypt (Faten Hamama, Egyptian star actress)
Figure
11. The girl is equal to the Boy(Soad Hosny, Egyptian Star actress)
One of the most brilliant graffiti of the "Noon El Neswa" organization is the one on which was written
"Don’t label me", the secret of its brilliance is touching a certain
untouchable issue in Egypt and since a long time, which caused a kind of
negative discrimination between the girl who puts a veil and the girl who doesn't
put it, as if the one who puts it is a decent girl, while the one who doesn't
is a bad one, not to mention that the girl or woman who puts the face burqaa is
considered by others as an extremist;
so, the graffiti calls for stopping this kind of pre-judging people especially
women based on their costume, which is from the researcher's point of view very
important to talk about visually and this frankness. (Figure12).
Figure12.
Don’t label me graffiti
Despite the diffusion of the
feminism graffiti in Egypt during the last revolution, it has guarded a kind of
figurative realistic style as an art in an
oriental developing society, meaning that despite the high dose of expression
freedom lived by the graffiti artists, they were not using any exaggerated
traits or obvious drawing of sexuality or sexual organs, knowing that the
feminism causes they were dealing with were about sexuality in the first place.
Thus, one can say that they used their imagination as well as their
intelligence to tell a story or to discuss a sensitive problem in a smart way,
we can't call this smart way "indirect" like we did in our talk about
the modern and contemporary Egyptian feminism arts of galleries and museums as
we previously mention in the section 3.3; so, we can't say that the graffiti
writers way in Egypt was" indirect" because the writing, tags and quotes
they used, made the message so direct, but we can rather say "smart",
smart enough to be accepted by people on the street; thus, it had to be in a
non-provocative tone, otherwise the result shall be the opposite of what they
wanted; but a smart message to be understood and appreciated as well. Their
messages have probably helped others to talk about the problem and to call for
stopping such kinds of persecution against women and girls; thus, graffiti,
along with the internet social medias, together have created an outlet of
expression as well as searching for solutions whether during the manifestations
or in general future; in such occasions, people, especially girls and women
learned that hiding the problem is not going to solve it, but contrary to that,
discussing it can.
4. Conclusions
1. Each
society has its own way for expressing visually its causes and treating its
problems, especially in something like feminism cases which are for some
societies sensitive cases due to traditions and religious atmosphere; this is
not to be considered against the universal language which is so much
appreciated by artists and art as a human common language; but on the other
hand, art should also respond to people's needs inside a certain society,
should find the best language to reach them effectively; an example for this,
is the way a girl or a woman is dressed in an oriental graffiti, she's always expected
to be more prudish than in an Occidental figurative graffiti, not necessarily
putting a veil, but at least she should be looking prudish and serious, unless
a graffiti artist decides to break the unwritten law and that would be an
exception.
2. It has to
be clear that the visual comparison in this research was not about deciding which
is better: the occidental or the oriental visual treatments in mural painting of
feminism causes? Actually, this is against what the researcher believes as an
artist; briefly, each street artist is talking to the people, he or she is one
of the people, unlike some isolated artists who are expressing their own cases,
which means that each artist is free to chose the best visual way to deliver
his message, and as much as he understands the people around him/her, as much
as he would success in his mission.
3. Graffiti
as a form of mural painting and as a street art, is more active concerning hot
subjects and events, unlike the arts of galleries and museums, it's like the
news information on media tools, graffiti as a street art is instant and a
quick responsive, more engaged with the people and the events in a direct way.
4.Feminism in
graffiti, whether in Orient or Occident societies is more active, effective and
fast reaching the highest number of people, especially women who need to feel
supported, understood and felt by others, it's also a kind of inspiration for
each woman to get over her fears and to demand for her rights; all of this can
happen due to a street art, especially when it's creative and eloquent, brief
and direct, where no need for sophistication or hard philosophy to be
understood by simple people, especially in a developing country, respecting the
variety of the people's cultures and traditions inside the same city.
5.Based on
the previous point, graffiti and street arts in general should have more spaces
in oriental societies, despite the numerous works we could find on the
internet; graffiti, streets arts and mural painting in Orient are considered
limited if compared with similar arts in Occident, the matter that has to
change; whereas, such kinds of arts are important, their role might be very
accurate in enlightening people perceptions; they must be allowed in an organized
way whether by governmental authorities or independent artists associations,
the matter that leads to think about opening special areas for this kind of
arts which will also minimize the vandalism action of some graffiti writers;
thus, governments need to understand that graffiti is not necessarily against
regimes, despite it has grown wild in Egypt in the atmosphere of the revolution
which is considered as a conclusion in itself, but it could be also used in an
organized way to spread culture, visual delights and art appreciation as well
as helping in human causes, using street arts in feminism empower women and
empowering women means empowering the whole state; and that's what many
occidental governments have understood and started to take advantage of, the
matter that helped also in the progress and the good quality of the presented
art, technically and visually. Some critics and graffiti writers would object
such suggestion, claiming that graffiti is only graffiti when it's totally free
with no censorship and totally unprepared, but that doesn't prevent the idea of
spreading visual arts, meaning that the organized street arts don’t prevent the
non-organized ones, just like we saw in some organizations activity.
6. Art in
general and street arts in specific are important tools in the face of
extremism and different kinds of intimidation and terrorism, we could see that
through some Egyptian graffiti with short piercer messages ensuring that the
meaning isn’t going to be misinterpreted, and this is a very good and important
role for graffiti and street arts to serve feminism which is always facing the
extremism of all kinds of religions.
Recommendations:
1- Feminism in Oriental societies need more documentations, studies and researches to be done, especially in the field of visual arts; these papers are just one of oriental Egyptian beginnings, especially when we know that it is Occidental researchers and journalists who were more interested to write about this issue, which is good but odd in the same time, because people who live in an area, researchers who live in oriental societies, were atmospheres are usually intimate and enclosed, they would probably know and understand better the hidden meanings, symbols and of course causes in their own societies which would lead to more clear results and studies.
2 - More opened spaces are needed for interactive visual arts projects serving feminism causes in Orient especially in rural and poor areas in simple and intelligent way which means that artists would need to be more understanding their social missions as well as artistic ones.
3 - Feminism itself in Orient societies, needs to be presented in clear direct and simple messages, in the aim of clearing any misunderstood concepts about it; thus, simple people need to understand that feminism is not against family's life, it is for a better flourishing and fair life as well as a better society, especially when this society is able to chose what it's appropriate to its ethics and religions which can be really different from traditions; actually, sometimes, traditions may be driving the society to disasters, as many of them have nothing to do with religions, like female genital mutilation for instance.
Papers, written and edited by:
Zeinab Nour
Associate Professor,
Painting Department, Mural Painting specialty.
Faculty of Fine Arts,
Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt.
Published by:
The International Conference : Cities’ Identity Through Architecture and Arts (CITAA)
Organized by the Faculty of Fine Arts- Helwan University & IEREK (Academic Research Community) - May 2017 - Cairo.
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- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inji_Aflatoun
- Taher,Menna. The life of Inji Aflatoun, an artist and a rebel. Ahram Online. Sunday 18 Sep 2011
- El-Saadi, Hoda. Suleiman, Mounira. Women Pioneers of Egyptian Art: Words and Images. Women and Memory forum.2007. p32.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghada_Amer
- http://middle-east-online.com/?id=195262
- lindsey. Feminist Street Art Sparked by the Egyptian Revolution. http://www.thingsworthdescribing.com/2016/01/24/feminist-street-art-sparked-by-the-egyptian-revolution/
- Ibid
- Ibid
- Abdel-Wehab, Reham. " Decode your Chains " with "Lady of the Wall" in the Greek campus. Mars25,2015.
- Ibid.
-------------------------------------
[i] Ibid
[i]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inji_Aflatoun
[ii] Taher,Menna. The life of Inji
Aflatoun, an artist and a rebel. Ahram Online. Sunday 18 Sep 2011
[iii]
El-Saadi, Hoda. Suleiman, Mounira. Women Pioneers of
Egyptian Art: Words and Images. Women and Memory forum.2007. p32.
[iv]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghada_Amer
[v]
http://middle-east-online.com/?id=195262
[vi] lindsey. Feminist Street Art Sparked by the Egyptian Revolution. http://www.thingsworthdescribing.com/2016/01/24/feminist-street-art-sparked-by-the-egyptian-revolution/
[i] https://falseprophetclothing.com/blogs/news/15816505-lady-pink
[i]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminist_art
[i] Brown, Ruth Nicole, Ed.; Kwakye, Chamara Jewel, Ed, Peter Lang.
Wish to Live: The Hip-Hop Feminism Pedagogy Reader. Educational Psychology. Volume 3.
https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED535918
[ii]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip_hop#Graffiti
[iii] Nour, Zeinab. Mural Painting between Nationalism and Absolute
Creative Freedom (in Arabic) published by the International Conference of The
Faculty of Fine Arts Centennial in Egypt – Helwan University (Cairo – Egypt - October 19-22/2008).
[iv] The Cyber Bench. Documenting the New York city Graffiti.
http://www.at149st.com/women.html
[v] Graffiti & Punk. 20th century graffiti, the rise of
graffiti art. http://www.widewalls.ch/20th-century-the-rise-of-graffiti/
[vi]
10 German Artists whose Street Art
Will leave You Breathless. http://www.widewalls.ch/10-german-artists/clemens-behr/
[vii] The Heritage of Berlin Street Art
and Graffiti scene.
https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/07/the-heritage-of-berlin-street-art-and-graffiti-scene/
[viii]
Rebecca Pursley. Shake Off the
Law: Graffiti and Feminism. The McNair Scholarly Review Truman State
University. Volume 18. Spring 2012. P55.
[i] Goldstein, Leslie F. Early
Feminist Themes in French Utopian Socialism: The St.-Simonians and
Fourier". Journal of the History of Ideas. 43 (1). (1982). p91–108.
[ii] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism
[iii] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism#Mid-twentieth_century
[iv] Jayawardena, Kumari. Reformism and women's rights in Egypt in
'Feminism and Nationalism in the third world. Zed Books Ltd.1981. p69.
[v] Labib Rizk, Younan. Egyptian women between development and
liberation(1873-1923). The Egyptian General Book Authority. Intellectual works.
2002. P.9.
[vi] Ibid.
[vii] Jayawardena, Kumari. Reformism and Women’s Rights in Egypt’ in
Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World. . Zed Books Ltd.1981. p72.
[viii] H. Chafe, William. Women in the Early to Mid-20th Century
(1900-1960): Social and Economic Conditions. A published essay in the
U.S.History in Context. http://ic.galegroup.com/
[ix] National Geographic. Documentary movie: Were the First
Artists Mostly Women? October 9, 2013
[x] Nastasi, Alison. 10 Female Dadaists You Should Know.
November 1, 2014. http://flavorwire.com/485924/10-female-dadaists-you-should-know
[xi] Harrison, Charles. Art in theory (Repr. ed.). Oxford
[u.a.] (2000). Blackwell. pp. 901–2.
[xii] Blake, Gopnik.What Is Feminist Art?Washington Post Staff Writer, Sunday,
April 22, 2007.
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