Gallerist Selma Feriani Seeks To ‘Enhance Cultural Dialogue’ Through New Art Space In Tunis
New
Age Islam News Bureau
21
January 2024
• Gallerist Selma Feriani
Seeks To ‘Enhance Cultural Dialogue’ Through New Art Space In Tunis
• Young Saudi Designer,
Lamees Alfadhel, Produces Vegan Leather Sheets From Wasted Dates
• Artist Manal Al-Dowayan Prepares For Venice Biennale
By Inviting Hundreds Of Saudi Women To Collaborate On Art Project
• Israeli Women, Captain Amit Busi, Fight On
Frontline, A First
• Afghanistan Woman Entrepreneur Hires Dozens Of
Female Workers
• 2 Malaysian Muslim Women Feed & Care For Stray
Puppies Roaming Outside Residence
• 'Dying Every Two Hours': Afghan Women Risk Life To
Give Birth
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/gallerist-selma-feriani-cultural-tunis/d/131558
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Gallerist Selma Feriani Seeks To ‘Enhance Cultural
Dialogue’ Through New Art Space In Tunis
Gallerist Selma Feriani
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Rebecca Anne Proctor
January 21, 2024
DUBAI: A new contemporary art gallery is opening later
this month in Tunis with the aim of shedding light on the North African
nation’s art scene, as well as creative talents from across the continent.
Tunisian gallerist Selma Feriani’s eponymous space will
open in vibrant downtown Tunis and is reportedly the first large-scale
commercial gallery of its kind in North Africa.
Feriani also has a gallery in London and her latest
opening reflects her long-time mission of fostering creativity in her home
country.
“After we opened in London, I quickly realized that
promoting artists from the region only from a platform in Europe was not
enough,” Feriani told Arab News. “You are not close enough to what is really
happening in the studios of artists from the Middle East. Importantly, you are
not close enough to the stories that they are telling you. You aren’t really on
the ground. This is why I decided to open another space in my home country of
Tunisia.”
Feriani first established her gallery in 2013 in
London followed by another space in SidiBouSaïd, Tunis, that same year. The
space represented emerging and mid-career artists from the MENA region and
internationally. It was housed in a
1960’s former convent and Feriani has now transformed the space into a house
where guests of the gallery, including artists and curators, stay.
Selma Feriani’s new purpose-built space in the rapidly
growing Tunis Lake district becomes the gallery’s primary, much larger
address. The space was designed by
Tunisian architect ChachaAtallah and features three sleekly devised exhibition
rooms, a basement space for projections, performances and talks, a mezzanine
exhibition platform and one exhibition room with 6.5-meter-high ceilings to
showcase large-scale artworks. Other rooms include a reading room and a
bookshop. Encircling the space is a recreational garden, complete with
indigenous fruit trees, that will display one sculptural commission each
year.
The new gallery, emphasizes Feriani, “opens fresh
possibilities of displaying and contextualizing art that makes it relevant and
accessible to contemporary audiences.
“This is a project that showcases our steadfast
commitment to providing a dynamic platform for contemporary art in North
Africa,” she told Arab News.
Titled “Et si Carthage.../ And what if Carthage...”
the exhibition will occupy all three exhibition halls and is inspired by a poem
by French Martinican writer and theoretician ÉdouardGlissant.
Glissant’s poem and Chamekh’s new works explore the
Roman occupation of Carthage in 146BC and the rumor that the Romans destroyed
Carthage with black salt. When the Romans stormed the city, they completely
sacked it, enslaving and killing much of its population.
The exhibition runs from Jan. 25-April 7 and is
curated by Paris-based Kathryn Weir with the assistance of curator Salma
Kossemtini.
Through her presence in North Africa, Feriani also
wants to work more with artists from the rest of the continent. In 2025 she
will stage an exhibition of works by renowned Ghanaian artist Ibrahim
Mahama.
“Some consider Tunisia to be more Mediterranean than
Africa, but we are located on the African continent,” she said. “A lot of
debates center around this fact, particularly surrounding issues with migrants
coming from Africa.
“Art,” she said, “offers a way to bring people
together and enhance cultural dialogue. Art, I believe, still offers a way to
respond to the crises of the world.”
Source: Www.Arabnews.com
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2445431/lifestyle
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Young Saudi Designer, LameesAlfadhel, Produces Vegan
Leather Sheets From Wasted Dates
Qitmeer is a machine that
produces vegan leather sheets using damaged and wasted dates. (Supplied)
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Dhai Al-Mutairi
January 20, 2024
RIYADH: Curiosity was her guide, creatively unveiling
the hidden wonders in the ordinary, and product designer Lamees Alfadhel
designed Qitmeer, a machine that produces vegan leather sheets using damaged
and wasted dates.
Qitmeer was the young designer’s graduation project.
Fascinated by science, creativity, and the ability to shape human interaction
with the world, Alfadhel explored several academic paths before discovering her
passion and purpose in product design.
“While I may not have realized it immediately after
high school, I soon discovered that product design brings together a
captivating mix of different disciplines, allowing me to combine my interests
and create innovative solutions,” said Alfadhel, a first-class honors product
design graduate from Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University.
She found two main challenges facing the natural
leather industry in the Kingdom: the chemical damage resulting from the leather
processes and the massive amount of wasted dates.
I’m looking forward to producing the most unique
leather sheets in the industry. Sustainabilityisacore value guiding my work,
dedicated to building a greener future through design.
The vegan leather-making machine Qitmeer works by
grinding the dates, mixing them with additives, then pouring them into molds to
start the first half of the drying process before preparing them for the
finishing and coloring processes.
The vegan leather sheets then become ready for the
manufacturing and production operation, which includes the making of leather
clothing and accessories.
Fibers are an essential part of the vegan synthetic
leather-making process, and dates are the optimal choice for this industry,
considering that they have a high fiber content.
“I’m looking forward to producing the most unique
leather sheets in the industry. Sustainability is a core value guiding my work,
dedicated to building a greener future through design,” said Alfadhel.
Qitmeer has been positively received by people. It
encourages others to use elements and sources available in the Kingdom,
explained Alfadhel.
Today, young creatives, including Alfadhel, have the
opportunity to make their mark on the national and global art and design scene,
with the Kingdom’s cultural renaissance supporting and inspiring a new
generation, a key part of Saudi Arabia’s visionary economic and social plan to
build a creative economy.
“There are numerous initiatives, organizations, and
government-backed programs that actively promote and support designers across
various disciplines.”
Alfadhel has worked on several projects and her first
was an interactive game with topic-based cards, designed to encourage teamwork.
She added: “Among the projects I’ve worked on, I take
great pride in highlighting Qitmeer as my most significant achievement so far.”
Qitmeer was selected and featured in Tanween’s
“Graduation Exhibition” at Ithra last November. The exhibition highlights the
most outstanding work by graduates of design and architecture colleges and
universities in the Arab world.
Alfadhel mostly uses Adobe Creative Cloud,
Illustrator, and Photoshop for her designs. When sketching the initial idea,
and 3D modeling, she uses the Fusion 360 platform.
“Fusion 360 is a fundamental part of my creative
process, allowing me to bring ideas to life and refine them with attention to
detail,” she said.
“Lately I’ve realized that the most used color in my
designs is green, but that relies on the purpose of the product I design.
Searching to understand the meaning of colors is an important step of my design
process.”
The world has witnessed influential product designers
who have set new standards in place, leaving a mark behind, and Alfadhel’s
passion for design and unwavering commitment and determination to contribute to
the design industry mark her out as a possible addition to the growing list.
She is currently working as a graphic designer and a
marketing specialist in Riyadh and aspires to collaborate with local talents to
foster the growth and development of young Saudi creatives in the Kingdom.
Source: Www.arabnews.com
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2445241/saudi-arabia
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Artist Manal Al-Dowayan prepares for Venice Biennale
by inviting hundreds of Saudi women to collaborate on art project
JASMINE BAGER
January 20, 2024
ALKHOBAR: Saudi artist Manal Al-Dowayan conducted a
workshop for art enthusiasts at the Fatat Al-Khaleej Society in her hometown of
Alkhobar on Jan. 16.
It was the first of three workshops Al-Dowayan is
hosting this month, with Jeddah and Riyadh still to come. The resulting
artworks will form part of Al-Dowayan’s contribution to the National Pavilion
of Saudi Arabia at the Venice Biennale in April.
For the last 20 years or so, Al-Dowayan has made a
habit of bringing Saudi women together to work on her projects. Fatat
Al-Khaleej, otherwise known as the Gulf Girl Charity Association, has been a
landmark in the Eastern Province since it opened its doors in 1968 with the
mission to offer a safe space to vulnerable Saudi women, including orphans. It
was the perfect space to host the event, not least because it was the venue for
Al-Dowayan’s first workshop back in 2012.
“The Eastern province, specifically Alkhobar, is where
I found the support and encouragement that allowed me to take my first steps as
an artist,” Al-Dowayan told Arab News. “It is only natural that I start this
three-city tour for my Venice Biennale artwork here, having my family, my
friends and my community help me kick off this exciting project.”
Aside from her sister and mother, many friends whom
Al-Dowayan has known for years joined her at the workshop, which was attended
by a wide range of art enthusiasts, from girls as young as six to women in
their eighties, all coming together with a common goal: to create empowered
Saudi women-centric art alongside Al-Dowayan, who has the ability to weave many
voices into one, without losing the essence of any.
One of the artist’s friends who participated in the
Alkhobar workshop was Mona Hassan, who also took part in many of Al-Dowayan’s
earlier workshops, including the one in the same space 12 years earlier.
“Manal’s workshops are always lighthearted and fun,”
Hassan told Arab News. “It’s been really special to be a part of Manal’s many
art projects over the years. I love that I could share this experience not only
with Manal and all of our friends, but also with my two daughters, who have
taken part in three of Manal’s workshops: ‘Suspended Together,’ ‘Esmi,’ and
‘Tree of Guardians.’”
“We are all connected, so today it was really a great
opportunity to exchange this energy between us as women. As Saudi citizens and
as Saudi women, we are empowered from within,” Aljishi told Arab News.
The workshops include breathing exercises and singing,
which Al-Dowayan has introduced as ways of breaking the ice and helping the
group feel more comfortable together. Ileana Yasmin, a professional singer who
works at the Music Commission in Riyadh, is one of the group of women leading
the workshops alongside Al-Dowayan, and focuses on helping the participants
find their voices.
“Everyone gave from her heart, which was amazing,”
Yasmin said of the Alkhobar event. “We had women from different age groups and
different generations. It was good. I thought maybe some would be shy but it
was very cozy, very friendly.”
There was a sense of camaraderie and an encouraging
atmosphere at the workshop, ensuring that each woman felt at ease expressing
herself creatively and helping Al-Dowayan realize her vision.
After completing her January workshops and prepping
for the Venice Biennale, Al-Dowayan will be busy preparing for two upcoming
exhibitions in AlUla.
Her next workshops take place in Jeddah at Hayy Jameel
on Jan. 22 from 6-10 p.m. and in Riyadh on Jan. 25 at Al-Nahda Society from 4-8
p.m. Women and girls interested in participating can register via the Saudi
Pavilion website or social media channels.
Source: Arab news
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2445236/saudi-arabia
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Israeli Women, Captain Amit Busi, Fight On Frontline,
A First
Jan 21, 2024
GAZA STRIP: When Captain Amit Busi gets a chance to
sleep, she does so with her boots on - and in a shared tent in an improvised
Israeli military post in the northern Gaza Strip. There she commands a company
of 83 soldiers, nearly half of them men. It is one of several mixed-gender
units fighting in Gaza, where female combat soldiers and officers are serving
on the frontline for the first time since the war surrounding the establishment
of Israel in 1948.
Busi is responsible not just for the lives of her
subordinates - search-and-rescue engineers whose specialized training and tools
help infantry troops enter damaged and booby-trapped buildings at risk of
collapse - but also for the wounded soldiers they help evacuate from the
battlefield. She and her soldiers also help scour the area for fighters,
weapons and rocket launchers and are responsible for guarding the camp.
It can be easy to forget Busi is only 23, given the
respect she has earned from her subordinates - Jews, Druze and Bedouin Muslim
men. "The borders have been blurred," Busi said of the decades-long
limits on the roles of female combat troops in Israel. The military, she said,
"needs us, so we are here." Since Israeli ground forces entered Gaza
in late Oct, women have been there fighting. Their inclusion has helped bolster
the image of the army domestically after the intelligence and military failures
of Oct 7.
The integration of women into the military's combat
units has been the subject of a lengthy debate in Israel, home to one of the
world's few armies that conscript women at 18 for mandatory service. For years
the question of women serving at the front pitted ultraconservative rabbis and
religiously observant soldiers against feminists, secularists and critics of
the country's traditionally macho culture. Now, that debate is effectively
over. There is no point continuing such arguments, Lt Gen HerziHalevi, the
military's chief of staff, said after female soldiers raced to confront Hamas
attackers, because their "action and fighting" speaks louder than
words.
Source: Times Of India
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Afghanistan Woman Entrepreneur Hires Dozens Of Female
Workers
RaqibaPoya Aziz
21 Jan 2024
SHEBERGHAN (Pajhwok): A businesswoman in northern
Jawzjan province has established a tailoring and rug-weaving workshop, hiring
100 female workers.
The workers of the workshop are happy and want the
Islamic Emirate to support their employer to enable her to boost her business
and hire more women.
The women who have lost jobs and girls barred from
school are working in her workshop, in addition to poor and professional
employees.
Regarding salaries, she said: “Carpet-weaving women
are paid on basis of meterage. The tailoring section workers are paid based on
their monthly performance.”
The income of these women had improved, she noted,
saying enterprising women had found their way to the workshop. If financially
supported by NGOs, they would attract more unemployed women and make the work
environment more favourable.
Wahida, a trainee in the carpet-weaving section, has
been working at the workshop for six months. She has learnt weaving and thereby
meets her financial needs.
She termed the establishment of such workshops effective
in eliminating women’s unemployment and financial problems of families. “I have
learnt many things here.”
Shafiqa, an instructor, voiced satisfaction with the
establishment of the workshop. She is eking out a decent living for her family.
“I’m a widow. I’m working to make a living for my
family, I am very happy and satisfied with my job. I can eke out a living for
my three children.”
Marina, another trainee at the workshop, said that she
had learnt sewing skills. “My monthly income is 1,000 afghanis. In our family,
no one else works except me and my father. I’m happy to work and contribute
financially to my family,” she added.
Fatima Nik Rasouli, head of the Women Chamber of
Commerce and Industry in Jawzjan, said: “Recently, the number of tailoring workshops
has increased in the province.”
“The number of women entrepreneurs is also rising with
the passage of each day and they have lately shown more motivation in the field
of business and entrepreneurship.
“These women are playing a very valuable role in
revenues of their families. They have become a role model for others,” she
commented.
Source: Pajhwok.Com
https://pajhwok.com/2024/01/21/woman-entrepreneur-hires-dozens-of-female-workers/
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2 Malaysian Muslim Women Feed & Care For Stray
Puppies Roaming Outside Residence
Fiona Tan
January 21, 2024
The woman, Siti Aishah Yunos, a doctor in Langkawi,
Kedah, shared that the puppies were born at the street in front of her house.
The puppies do not belong to Aishah, but prefer the
area outside of Aishah's residence, spending most of their time there when they
are not roaming the area.
Aishah and her helper, whom she called makcik (aunty),
appear to have developed a familiarity with and become attuned to the puppies,
and vice versa.
The puppies, on the other hand, appear to recognise
Aishah as their source of food, and a black puppy will wait patiently outside
her gate to be fed, Aishah said.
Aishah added that other dogs would visit her residence
for food, and almost as if on cue, a pack of three white puppies appeared,
eager to be fed.
Despite it being chowtime, the puppies appear to know
to reign in their excitement and keep a safe distance from both women while waiting
for their food.
Remarking on the puppies' intelligence, Aishah said
they are also popular with her neighbours as their presence in the area has
supposedly deterred mat rempit (illegal racers) from racing down the streets
and brought peace.
However, according to the Islamic Religious Council of
Singapore (MUIS), it is neither against Islamic law, nor is it a sin to touch
dogs.
Muslims have to cleanse the area of their body that
has come into contact with a dog's saliva using a method called sertu, where
the area is cleansed seven times — once with water mixed with earth (soil), and
six times with clean water.
Source: Mothership.Sg
https://mothership.sg/2024/01/malaysian-women-feed-puppies/
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'Dying every two hours': Afghan women risk life to
give birth
21 January, 2024
Zubaida travelled from the rural outskirts of Khost in
eastern Afghanistan to give birth at a maternity hospital specialising in
complicated cases, fearing a fate all too common among pregnant Afghan women —
her death or her child's.
She lay dazed, surrounded by the unfamiliar bustle of
the Doctors Without Borders (MSF)-run hospital, exhausted from delivery the day
before, but relieved.
"If I had given birth at home, there could have
been complications for the baby and for me," said the woman, who doesn't
know her age.
"Sometimes we receive patients who come too late
to save their lives" after delivering at home, said Therese Tuyisabingere,
the head of midwifery at MSF in Khost, capital of Khost province.
The facility delivers 20,000 babies a year, nearly
half those born in the province, and it only takes on high-risk and complicated
pregnancies, many involving mothers who haven't had any check-ups.
She and some 100 midwives at the clinic are on the
front lines of a battle to reduce the maternal mortality rate in Afghanistan,
where having many children is a source of pride, but where every birth carries
heavy risks — with odds against women mounting.
"According to the latest World Health
Organization figures, from 2017, 638 women died in Afghanistan for every
100,000 viable births, compared with 19 in the United States"
Afghanistan is among the worst countries in the world
for deaths in childbirth, "with one woman dying every two hours," UN
spokesman Stephane Dujarric said earlier this month.
According to the latest World Health Organization
figures, from 2017, 638 women died in Afghanistan for every 100,000 viable births,
compared with 19 in the United States.
Before the return to power of the Taliban in August
2021 and the end of their insurgency, women would sometimes have to brave the
frontlines to reach help, but now there are new challenges — including a
"brain drain" of expertise.
Moreover, Taliban authorities want to get rid of the
mobile medical teams visiting women because "they cannot control the
health messages they were giving", he said.
Under the Taliban government, women have been squeezed
from public life and had access to education restricted, threatening the future
of the female medical field in a country where many families avoid sending
women to male doctors.
"Access to antenatal and postnatal care for a
woman was (always) extremely complicated. It's even more complicated
today," said Filipe Ribeiro, MSF director in Afghanistan.
This is due to measures taken by authorities as well
as the failings of the healthcare system — including structural support from
foreign donors.
The financial strain on families amid the country's
economic crisis increases the risks, said Noor Khanum Ahmadzai, health
coordinator for the non-governmental organisation Terre des Hommes in Kabul.
Despite the risks, "women who used to go to the
public sector now prefer to deliver at home because they don't have
money", said Ahmadzai.
An estimated 40 percent of Afghan women give birth at
home, but that shoots up to 80 percent in remote areas — often with the help of
their mother-in-law or a local matriarch, but sometimes alone.
"I was sick, my husband didn't have any money. I
was told, 'Go to this hospital, they do everything for free'," said the
38-year-old, one of hundreds of thousands of Afghans who fled Pakistan in
recent months, fearing deportation.
"It is valued here to have many children and many
women take a treatment to stimulate their fecundity. We often have twins
here," she told AFP.
The average woman has six children in Afghanistan, but
multiple pregnancies, repeated caesarean sections or miscarriages increase the
risk of death.
Women in neighbouring Paktia province may have fewer
risks now, thanks to a first-of-its-kind maternity centre opened recently by
NAC in the small provincial capital Gardez — a clinic run by women for women.
"This type of clinic doesn't exist in the majority
of provinces," Khair Mohammad Mansoor, the Taliban-appointed provincial
health director, told the all-male audience.
The NAC facility aims to help "many of our
sisters who live in isolated areas," manager Nasrin Oryakhil said, with
similar clinics planned for four other provinces in the coming months.
Its walls are freshly painted and decorated with
posters promoting vitamins and iron for pregnant women, and the small clinic is
set up for 10 deliveries a day, said head midwife Momina Kohistani.
Source: Newarab.Com
https://www.newarab.com/features/dying-every-2-hours-afghan-women-risk-life-give-birth
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/gallerist-selma-feriani-cultural-tunis/d/131558