A Yemeni photographer worked both sides of the camera as she and her daughter – and a doll – posed for a visual mediation on the increasing covering of women.
Boushra Almutawakel comes from a conservative, well-known family in Yemen. So when she was unable to find Yemini women who would pose for her series on the hijab, she and her daughter sat for the camera despite her apprehension.
“She Who Tells a Story” opens at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston this week. Four of the artists included are Iranian; three — Ms. Tavakolian, Gohar Dashti and Shadi Ghadirian — live and work in Iran today. The exhibit also highlights work by Jananne Al-Ani, Boushra Almutawakel, Rana El Nemr, Lalla Essaydi, Tanya Habjouqa, Rula Halawani, Nermine Hammam, Rania Matar and Shirin Neshat, the fourth Iranian artist, who lives in New York.
One of her long term projects is the Hijab Series. In this series, which consists of various sub-series, she explores women and the veil they wear. The veil has become an icon to the west of suppression, yet Boushra wants to emphasize that under the veil, women are individual and varied, and the reasons for wearing the veil vary enormously
