Monday, November 5, 2018

The Moroccan Photographer Tackling Misogyny in the Arab World

This article originally appeared on VICE Arabia.

Fatima Zohra Serri wanted to study photography after leaving high school, which would have meant leaving her hometown of Nador in northern Morocco. However, her conservative father wouldn't let her—he believed that girls shouldn't live far from home. So, instead, the 23-year-old studied at Nador's Applied Technology Institute and eventually become an accountant in her home city.

But Fatima never lost her passion for photography. Alongside her day job, she has built a considerable social media following by dedicating her work to finding creative ways to shed light on the discrimination that she and many women in her community face.

I spoke with Serri to find out what inspired her work, and asked her to take me through some of her most popular and controversial pieces.

Man holding a newspaper

And finally, the photo with the man holding a newspaper?
Many parents here take their daughters out of primary school in order to marry them off, while they send their sons abroad to study. When I was younger, many of my female friends were taken out of school to learn housekeeping to prepare them for marriage.

I tried to express this reality in one picture. Firstly, the men in my community are always considered to be more important than women, so the woman is sitting on the floor and the man is above her on a chair. Next, the man reads the newspaper, and when he's done, he throws the paper scraps to his wife, who then uses them to set the fire and prepare hot water for tea. With that, I tried to show how gaining knowledge is granted to men only.

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You can follow Fatima's work on Instagram.



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