Princess Wijdan Ali of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan hopes that a symposium and art exhibition being co-sponsored by Emory will help to dispel stereotypical images of Muslims as violent fanatics.
"Islam has replaced communism as the great ogre threatening the West. It is not," Ali said in her March 16 opening address at The Carter Center for the two-day symposium "Forces of Change: Women, Art and Literature in the Arab World," which served as a forum for the academic exploration of the central issues of Arab women and social change.
"In reality," Ali continued, "Islam was the first international civilization on the globe. While the Romans had a larger territory to rule, much of their culture was taken from Greek civilization. [Around the 14th and 15th centuries], Islam amalgamated traditions and trends from the Byzantines, China, the Greco-Romans, Indians, the Berbers of North Africa, various Turkish tribes and others. At that time, Islam was an international civilization, when you consider all the cultures involved. This kind of internationalism is what we want today. I hope this exhibition will not only encourage acceptance, but also an understanding of our aesthetics. We want to be regarded as different, but we want respect for that difference."
The exhibition to which Ali referred is titled "Forces of Change: Women Artists of the Arab World" and runs through April 29 at the Nexus Contemporary Art Center in Atlanta and the Gwinnett Fine Arts Center.
"I hope this exhibition will help to dispel some myths about Arab women," said Ali, "such as being always behind the veil and living only to satisfy your husband and raise your children. This stereotypical picture was perpetuated in the Victorian era and developed in the minds of both westerners and easterners."
Ali said that while all Arab women are not emancipated, the most common prison for women all over the world is lack of education. "Once a woman is educated," she said, "whether she is [rich or poor], she can make a difference and achieve much. Many women come from poverty and prove themselves. The main thing that makes the difference is education. Once you get an education, you can achieve whatever it is you want, merely by knowing what you want and working hard."
Educating Americans about the traditions, styles and techniques of Arab women artists is a principle goal of the exhibition, said Ali, an artist and author herself. This includes the use of Arab calligraphy and the portrayals of conflict and violence in Arab women's art, which are different from portrayals of Arab conflicts by those outside the Arab world.
"We are now living according to what we see on CNN, in a real global village," Ali said. "This has forced us in the Arab world to be exposed to other cultures. But we don't want to be receivers only without sending a signal as well. This exhibition is one way of sending our signal to North America that we want to have cultural interaction."
"You have touched on almost all of the themes that we will discuss in the symposium," Gordon Newby, chair of Near Eastern and Judaic Languages and Literatures, told Ali after her address. "You have set the stage for what I hope will be a real conversation to enlighten and educate all of us as we get to know each other better." Newby and religion professor John Fenton played major roles in the planning of the symposium.
--Dan Treadaway