Burqa vs. naked art
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As the French cabinet, this week, approved a draft law to ban the burqa, Paris-based Moroccan artist Majida Khattari has been using the veil worn by some Muslim women as inspiration for a photography and installation show in the French capital.
Khattari uses her artistic perspective to take a refreshing, provocative look at why this piece of cloth fuels so much passion in France.
This is not the first time Khattari has used the burqa theme. Last year, at a fashion show at the Cite Internationale, she took the issue to an extreme level by having heavily veiled women and men walk down one side of the catwalk while nude women wearing large turbans and high heels walked up the opposite side.
She was keen to show how women are not only constrained purely by religion: “We also have to comply and conform to aesthetic norms to look young and beautiful, always”, she said.
Again she has taken the issue to the extreme in her latest display. One of the photos, Partage (Sharing), shows two women facing each other, one naked and one veiled.
Surprising to some, Khattari has never been threatened by radical groups for her artistic work, although French women's rights group, Ni putes ni soumises, did make a complaint against her - claiming that she had an agenda.
The gallery’s owner Thibault de la Châtre maintains that Khattari’s photos were not selected because of the controversial nature of the burqa issue.
Khattari’s photography show runs at the Martine and Thibault de la Chatre art gallery in Paris until 19 June.
