WUNRN
Artists Help Syrian Refugee Women Tell Their Stories
Syrian refugee women from the association
Basmeh wa Zeitooneh in Shatila work on an embroidery piece for the
"Embroiderers of Actuality" project, realized March through April
2015 in Beirut, in collaboration with Art Residence Aley and the Swiss Embassy
in Lebanon. (photo by embroiderers-of-actuality.com/)
Author: Florence MassenaPosted - June
14, 2015
Since the beginning of the Syrian civil
war in 2011, the stories of female Syrian refugees in
Lebanon have been told through various media and reports by nongovernmental organizations, expressing
great concern for their safety. Often separated from their husbands and family,
as these women struggle to survive, many
have experienced trauma and sexual targeting by Syrian and
Lebanese men inside and outside the camps where they live. Some
art initiatives are trying to create an image of these
women beyond that of a victim, giving them
voice through works that sensitively look at their lives and situations.
How does one discuss Syrian women who have
sought shelter in Lebanon without falling into the trap of sensationalism? Some
artists have addressed this by allowing the women to express
themselves. Such is the case of Aglaia Haritz, from Switzerland, and
Abdelaziz Zerrou, from Morocco, both visual artists.
Haritz ad Zerrou met in Paris in 2011 and
decided to work together on a project, Embroiderers of Actuality. For this undertaking,
they ask women in different locations — Cairo, Casablanca
and Marrakech and this year Beirut — to create embroidery.
Afterward, the two artists draw images, including on the
embroidery, and create sculptures influenced by the discussions they have
with the women. The works are then displayed in yet a different country.
“Embroidery is an excuse to get in touch with
women from conservative societies and to get to know their world and
stories,” Haritz told Al-Monitor. “We want to show these aspects in art
spaces to bring light to their situation. While the women embroider, we talk to
them, and we make sound recordings and videos, a kind of sound sculpture
that reflects the work atmosphere.”
Each city presents different situations
and stories, so each piece is different from all the others. “For example, in
Beirut, we met with the women in the Basmeh wa Zeitooneh organization
in Shatila camp. We sensed a strong issue of identity, so we took pictures of
them and combined them with the embroideries, so we could highlight the women’s
personalities,” said Haritz. “It was much easier to access and talk to them
than in Morocco and Egypt.”
Embroidery allows the artists to spend
enough time with the women to bring out meaningful stories about
their lives. As Haritz explained, “Then we mix their
masterpieces with contemporary art, from tradition to modernity, in order to
confront them and give a complete picture of the situation.”
Photography is another medium being
used to approach Syrian women in Lebanon. The Syrian filmmaker and
photographer Omar Imam arrived in
Lebanon from Damascus as a refugee at the end of 2012. He
began working with refugees through the Danish Refugee Council,
which asked him to visit and photograph daily life in five refugee camps. The
exhibition of his work was held in December
2014, focusing on a teenage audience to inform them of
refugees' situation without engaging in stereotypes. This experience, which
Imam called “too fast and not personalized enough,” led him to take part
in another project, Live Love Refugee, financed through a grant from the
Arab Fund for Art and Culture and its Arab Documentary Photography Program.
Imam is currently editing a video set to
music that consists of photographs of Syrian families and quotes from
them, focusing mainly on women, after noting that the majority of the camps'
inhabitants are women. “I realized in talking to them that their lives are very
hard in Lebanon,” Imam told Al-Monitor.
Imam said, “They are, especially in the
camps, where precariousness and loneliness are prevalent factors, subjected to
much more sexual violence and early marriage than before the war in Syria. When
I heard these stories, I chose to document them, but not in the media's
way. I didn't want to produce another documentary simply showing the usual
pictures of them in their current living situation. I play on each person's
story to create a dreamy atmosphere. It is very conceptual. I focus on the
important parts of the stories they tell me to reproduce them physically, with
symbolic details. For example, I pictured a woman whose husband had left
her during the war with her children, posing as they would for a normal
family picture, but next to a man of straw. I want to attract the world's
attention to their situation, not by taking just another picture of a refugee,
but also adding some dreams and symbols. [The refugees] are sick of the media
and photographers approaching them. I had to build a very solid bridge for them
to trust me.”
One of the pictures that really touched
Imam was one of a 16-year-old girl wearing a bridal dress and dragon's
wings. She appears to throw a fireball and looks very angry, yelling. The
accompanying quote reads, “I wish to become a dragon and burn the
scarves and everything in that tent.”
“This girl's story is not that
unusual,” Imam said. “She was married by her family and refused to have
sex with her husband on their wedding night. He called his family for help, so
they came to restrain her and beat her. Then she claimed not to be a
virgin, so her own family beat her as well. To survive, she told her family and
her husband's that she was actually a virgin and spent a night with her
spouse. The next day, she asked for a divorce. I had to find a creative way to
express her anger, but also her strength, through details that are not realistic
but reflect her feelings. Initially, Imam did not want to use her story.
“It was too hard for me [to handle],” he admitted. “But if it is too hard
for an artist to talk about this issue, who will?”
Imam focused his project on
women, because he felt that they had more moving stories and played large
roles in the camps. “Art is the best way for me to talk about [women’s]
situations, because women in our society don't have a direct relationship to
the media. Men and even female family members prevent them from talking and
[answer] on their behalf. You can't hear their voice, so
it's our mission, as activists and artists, to make this possible. But I never
reveal tears, because they are the survivors. I want them to express it in my
pictures.”
Not victimizing the women is also an
important rule in the work of Embroiderers of Actuality. Haritz said, “From a
European perspective, Arab women are submissive and exploited. It is important
to confront this stereotype with the reality. Since it's hard in conservative
areas to access them, art is a bridge for them to be heard and to show their
real condition, whether they are fragile, conservative, brave or liberal.
What I admired the most in Beirut is that the Syrian women we met were really
supportive of each other and able to share everything. They showed strength,
and I’m happy to have been able to testify to that.”