July 22, 2016 at 10:30 news Exposure to Gardiner Museum helps Muslim women to find their voice against oppression. By Samira Mohyeddin ...
news
Exposure to Gardiner Museum helps Muslim women to find their voice against oppression.
Hijab shielded exhibited in the special exhibition hall of the Gardiner Museum. Image of Samira Mohyeddin.
Terrorist, pollute, suppressed ignorant: These are just some of the words that Muslim women often speak against them launched in Toronto in life. These are some of the words that are written in works of art of the same women.
The display in the Gardiner Museum this week, Respect, by the Community Health Center of South Riverdale aims and Islamophobia Muslim women in the spotlight through art face to stigmatization.
The brain child Gurpreet karir and Wanda Georgis, both social and non - Muslims in working in community health centers, respect for the Niqab debate born, the space for the Harper - government in Canada took place, his own work with Muslim women in the Danforth Avenue and Jones, and harassment and physical attacks, some Muslim women Toronto show.
"We wonder how women [Muslims] were in this climate and how they did their children. We tried to find a way to think, to talk about these problems they" karir said.
The project was initially difficult. Karir and Georgis not have some of the anxiety and fear that women should talk about their experiences. Participants say that they have heard many disturbing stories of other Muslims Islamophobia Toronto: those who wanted to change their names to avoid persecution, are committed members of the community who have been harassed in public transport, and many who just felt , to leave their homes.
"It was not easy. In the beginning, they say 'all is well' 'Canada great," she said. "But once we started to share our own experiences, women have also the stigma and insults sometimes opened was known."
Fatima Khan, left, and Salha Al Shuwehdy in South Riverdale Community Health Centre. Image of Samira Mohyeddin.
One participant, Salha Al Shuwehdy hesitated to join the project when it was requested. Since I had never done art, silkscreens left alone, did not know what to expect.
"I did not even know that I had something to say," she said. "I am very worried because ... I do not think anyone cares about what he had to say."
Now the credit for the project is granted, to find her voice. And that is the goal of the project: the voice of Muslim women in other communities Toronto.
Although compliance with the display in the Gardiner Museum is currently created serigraphs subproject of Muslim women as al-Shuwehdy was presented for the first time at the east end of Toronto last year in the common carrot. As Gardiner Museum, none of the women involved had never been to the common carrot and have a day on the roof no conversation that he wanted to stay turned.
"I told my husband, this is not the end of this project," said Al-Shuwehdy.
And he was right.
A year later, a new group of young Muslim women have begun to explore the stigma of questions and Islamopohbia by written messages on the screen printing Hijab who designed a community center.
Kameez traditional silk screened with the words used to describe Muslim women on the screen. Image of Samira Mohyeddin.
Twenty years Fatima Khan, a student at Ryerson University whose mothers participated in the first phase of the project, do not miss the opportunity to get his message to take outside their own community.
"My friends and I often wonder what happens in the world, and how we feel a Muslim in Canadian society of the question," she said. "But they never talk about it openly, or share it with others outside of our community invited."
A Hijabs screen displayed on the screen. Image of Samira Mohyeddin.
"As the attacks in Paris took place last year, my mother told me to stop taking the TTC for a while because I'm afraid everyone would all Muslims to blame for what happened," says Khan.
After the second group of girls started their silkscreen were finished, Georgis karir and again the difficult task of finding a space to exhibit the works, tripping over the Gardiner Museum.
Through an open call for proposals, part of the space program and summer Gardiner Museum Community Arts are the Community Health Centre South Riverdale and applied. And while respect much different from clay and ceramics is common that customers are accustomed to seeing, the Gardiner Museum was ready to host the exhibition.
"We know how difficult it can be to find a space in this city," says Rachel Weiner, Head of Communications at a high level in the Gardiner Museum. "We believe that this work was crucial and deserves to be seen and that we were ready to integrate into our program."
Make art for people and communities who would not attend exhibitions and openings normally, let alone with their own works, so it is what is to transform this project. South Riverdale Community Health Center, provided the means and the Gardiner Museum provided to share a room for Muslim women their stories and their hopes for an inclusive and welcoming Toronto. Considering this fact at a community celebration of the exhibition read Friday, a special message from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau can.
Respect is until Sunday, July 24 and admission is free.
