9. Silsila: Linking Bodies, Deserts, Water

‘Silsila: Linking Bodies, Deserts, Water’ is a series of photographs by the Palestinian-Iraqi artist Sama Alshaibi. Alshaibi, whose family was exiled from two homelands, spent her formative years migrating across Middle Eastern countries as a political refugee. She argues that any understanding of the socio-economic and political upheavals that Middle Eastern women experience is complicated by problematic historical and contemporary depictions of them in photographs, which often reduce their challenges to what they wear. Alshaibi’s photo essay offers an overview of various strategies she pursues in her own work to decode and subvert familiar images of Middle Eastern women, while using a personal vernacular to describe her relationship with the many countries and cultures that have formed her identity.