Abstract :
Images of Muslim women in global popular culture convey ideas of restriction and oppression: to many in the West, the covered Arab woman appears a victim, unable to express herself in word and deed. Artists and writers from within Arab cultures have challenged such simplistic readings, some offering alternative readings of living behind the veil, others offering the possibility of a feminist existence within an apparently oppressive society, all challenging the Orientalist mindset implied by such assumptions. Zineb Sedira, as quoted above, pinpoints the Western fascination with veiling and the degree to which this has informed cultural stereotypes and misrepresentations. This article will investigate the work of four artists living in the Arab diaspora — Emily Jacir, Lalla Essaydi, Zineb Sedira, and Shirin Neshat — each of whom examines her own culture and produces feminist art about women s spheres and roles. As artists address issues of veiling and bodily representation with Islamic culture, it becomes readily apparent that veiling has not one singular meaning, either in the West or in the East, but that its meanings are varied and shifting. As Sedira says, the veil is “a puzzling emblem of progress, then of backwardness; a badge now of status, then of domination; a symbol of purity and a sign of feminine silence and constraint”
