Out and About Muslim Women

This photographic exhibition explores the lives of ten Muslim women from Cape Town who come from diverse backgrounds. The women reflect on being Muslim and share their dreams and aspirations. Many of the photographs are from the women’s private albums and depict everyday life, social activities and career successes. By offering different perspectives, they challenge stereotypical notions of Muslim women. The exhibition is accompanied by a video produced by Munier Parker.

Hand of Fatima - Exhibition by Farideh Zariv

The Hand of Fatima, an ancient motif in northern African and Middle Eastern art and architecture, is rich in meaning. The symbol is also known as khamsa and the Eye of Fatima in Islamic tradition. The Hand of Fatima symbolises divine protection, freedom and peaceful co-existence with others and is used in amulets, jewellery and architectural features. Predating Islam, the symbol has been widely assimilated into Islamic art.

The Iranian-Australian artist Farideh Zariv has, since 1990, collected more than eighty artworks incorporating the Hand of Fatima; collected from Iran, all over the Arabian world and India. Selected pieces will be on display. Also displayed will be multi-media artworks by Zariv that were inspired by the Hand of Fatima. According to Zariv, “…each hand has a message for humankind. The Hand of Fatima is a symbol of that message, carrying spiritual and mystical meanings. This hand could be a hand of light, showing humankind the way to brightness and peace. It could also be a hand, which directs human attention to inner spirituality. In my art I try to convey this message, including the essence of the hand, in the title of each work.”

A DVD on contemporary Iranian paintings will be screened at the Bo-Kaap Museum on 4 and 5 July, 10:00 to 11:00.

About Muslim Women Today

An exhibition About Muslim women today opens on 9 August at the Iziko Bo-Kaap Museum. The museum focuses on the history of the Bo-Kaap as well as the social history of Islam at the Cape.

About Muslim women today explores the everyday lives of Muslim women living in surrounding areas of Cape Town. The project aim has been to give Muslim women a space to take control of the way in which they are portrayed. The content was developed through a consultative process of a workshop, planning meetings and individual contributions. Resulting from this process ten women were selected and interviewed. Although all ten are Muslim, the exhibition explores the idea of multi-facetted individuals and includes aspects of their lives that are not exclusive to being Muslim.

The women were selected in an informal manner. They were either part of the group that participated in planning the exhibition or known to a member of that group. All the women are active in the the public sphere. Some are career-focused while others are deeply involved in work in their communities. A few managed to combine a career with community involvement.

The interviews sought to highlight themes about identity and social issues, rather than provide detailed personal histories. Their photographs were taken either at work or at home. In addition to these, photographs from the women’s family albums have been incorporated into the exhibition. The result is an exhibition that focuses both on the private and public spheres. They variously face gender barriers at work and home, deal with social problems in their neighbourhoods and struggle with religious concerns in an imperfect world.

Also part of the exhibition is a video on a few selected Muslim women produced by Munier Parker, film maker who lives in the Bo-Kaap.

Tatamkhulu Afrika

Mogamed Fu’ad Nasif – John Carlton – Jozua Joubert – Ismail Joubert - Tatamkhulu Afrika: One man with five names, all legally adopted, tells the story of a man’s journey in search of identity, social justice and religious truth. Tatamkhulu Afrika wrote four novels, one novella and nine volumes of poetry. He won every literary prize for which his work was eligible. He served in the Union of South Africa Defense Force and Umkhonto we Sizwe. He lived as philantrophist, ascetic and founded al-Jihad, a welfare organization.

Iziko Museums, together with the National English Literary Museum and al-Jihad put together an exhibition in memory of a remarkable man.

Lowering the Gaze: Impressions of Muslim Women in Cape Town

This collection of mainly photographs begins to address the ways in which Muslim women are portrayed in the collections of two national heritage institutions. The images of Muslim women or Cape Malay women, as they are called in the documentation, were collected over several decades by the National Library of South Africa (NLSA) and Iziko Museums. It is argued that they are typical of an ‘orientalising’ paradigm. Looking at the fragments of women’s history uncovered in the NLSA and Iziko archives, it becomes clear to one that the images leave out much more than what they include.

Muslim women are challenging orientalist and reactionary writings about themselves and reconstructing an alternative paradigm, in which they actively transcend historical and social restrictions. In this way, misconceptions and myths about Muslim women may diminish.

This exhibition is based on research by Maheerah Gamieldien