Azadeh Jafarian; Middle Eastern Women Artists: Need for Gender Justice

The good news is that Sheikha Latifa, daughter of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Sheikha Salama bint Hamdan, wife of Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, and Sheikha Hoor, daughter of Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, are in charge of artistic management in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Sharjah, respectively.

IranArt  : Azadeh Jafarian : Everyone agrees that women have always been underestimated in art history because, like all other areas of history, it was recorded and recounted by men.

The "Now You See Us" exhibition, on show at Tate Britain in London until October 13th, is one example of this argument. The show features 238 works by 110 European women artists made during a four-hundred-year period spanning the beginning of the 16th century to the start of the 20th. According to the exhibition's curator, Tabitha Barber, these are artworks that have been purposely hidden from history books due to widespread misogyny in the art world.

So, what is the situation of female artists in the Middle East while this is the case in the developed world of the West?!

It is adequate to examine the few books on Middle Eastern art history that exist. All of the pages in those publications are devoted to men. All you have to do is look at oral histories of art in areas where male artists' creations are consistently praised and female artists are a virtual minority.

However, the modern era is a distinct historical period. The number of female artists has grown so rapidly in the last three or four decades that they now compete with males in terms of quality and have surpassed men in fields such as painting, design, new arts, and so on. Unfortunately, women face distrust and barriers in the art market and sales, and the number of Middle Eastern women reaching market leadership is less than the number of fingers on one hand. Building a culture and altering perspectives are necessary for this crucial task, particularly in the area of artistic management.

The good news is that Sheikha Latifa, daughter of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Sheikha Salama bint Hamdan, wife of Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, and Sheikha Hoor, daughter of Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, are in charge of artistic management in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Sharjah, respectively. This is a blatant indication that women are becoming the region's cultural leaders.

Many galleries in Iran, including those in Tehran, Oman, Doha, Qatar, Jeddah, and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, are run by women. There is more hope than ever that gender equity will be given significant consideration in the Middle East's artistic community.