Max Emadi's “Islamic Erotica” series was begun in 2002, following the infamous events of September 11th. In the following weeks and months, I started to feel my “otherness” once again, recalling my feelings from 1979 when my family immigrated to the United States from Iran. The familiar sting reminded me of how I felt as a fourteen- year old entering high school in California without a mastery of the English language, and only days after my countrymen had found it necessary to take a number of hostages from my newly-adopted land’s U. S. embassy. These periods in history, I suspect, made many Iranians feel similarly complicated emotions in our new “western” homes. I was almost ready to address my cultural conflicts through my art then, but it was not until Bush declared war on Iraq that my feelings actually boiled over!
As an atheist, I had always been critical of the state of my home country and the other theocracies of the world. However, I was not entirely a western convert either. Just because I hated the Iranian government more, I was not blind to the hypocrisies and travesties carried out by imperialists in the name of democracy.
In this series, I wanted to examine gender issues from both sides of the aisle. By combining the seemingly contradictory images of Islamic dress and American pinup art, we see a nightmarish vision of a possible future in the Middle East, as globalization and American and European democracy attempt to dominate while fundamentalist traditions hold fast in the region.
Sexism exists in all societies. The sexism of the East is direct. It is most apparent in its mandated repressive female clothing and legal and cultural restrictions on women’s freedom. Here, the double-standard between men and women cannot be denied. Perhaps the West objectifies women more “lovingly”. The traditional art of this culture exalts the “weaker sex,” though with a constant emphasis on her sexuality and little else. Overexposure and the unnatural poses of the female models are most clearly evident in modern advertising, entertainment media, and in the traditional pinup art of the 1940s and 50s. My work juxtaposes these two very different, but related, representations of the female.
I have been criticized by feminists and Muslims alike, but I believe my work supports the positions of both of them! After all, isn’t it true that erotic art, as a tool of sexism in a culture that objectifies women sexually, should really empower women who live in a culture that strips them of their sexuality and the power it brings? A type of image that, in secular societies, has been reduced to a pedestrian tool of commerce, titillation, and subjugation, is anything but that in a theocratic region. It may very well be a tool of revolution!
Islamic Erotica picture gallery
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12 comments:
Salam Aleykum, arent u suppose to be muslim. Why are you embarrassing us and doing this? as a revert to islam i feel Islam should be honoured and so their woman. why are you doing this. Defaming us. Im from Cuba, i came to Islam by learning and educating myself about it. You should learn the real Islam. Allah forgive u for defaming his religion. There is a punishment for this. I hope you know that u are doing the same things the disbelievers are doing. Defaming us, our woman and religion. U are no different than them. Allah guide u man. Why? If you don't want to believe, ok, go on with your life. However there is no need for this.
u know u will never fit in American society. They will never like you or accept you. You will always be an Iranian to them. U will always be the outcast. Why man?
I'm a lapsed Muslim and an ardent feminist. I have lived in both the middle east and the USA, and I am really interested in how the objectification comes from both sides. In fact, I wrote a post about a similar topic on a teenage feminist blow a while ago. It's here:
http://thefbomb.org/2009/07/from-the-other-side-of-the-globe/
I think your work is pretty cool social commentary. It's good to see that it's raising eyebrows.
Keep it up.
when i saw this piece of art i was gobsmacked.a muslim woman is not a victim of oppression. If a women appears to be oppressed it is not beause of religon but because of the cultural ideals she 'must' live up to. Don't mix culture and religion because the end result will be a over-simplified concept that you've come up with. study islam with an unbiased attitude maybe you will undersand that this is the furst religion that liberated women by givng rhem dignity.
I believe that though you are making an interesting observation on female sexuality and the different ways that it is portrayed across these two distinctly different cultures perhaps you are going about it in the wrong way. Your point could have as easily been made through words and there doesn't seem the need for the graphic pictures that would obviously deeply offend Muslims. I also believe that you are unable to distinguish between religion and culture. perhaps if you were more well read on Islam and understood it you could realize that Islam actually empowers women. As a Muslim women who wears the veil I find it as a form of protection and I am proud to be wearing it and all the connotations that I believe come with it. It feels you have demeaned your objective and yourself by disrespecting your fellow human beings.
Listen Makan Emadi!
You are atheist? claims to be human? believe in fredom of speech? believe in fredom all mankind? believe in others right to be respected, as you want to be respected, isn't it?
If so, you simply agree that you are violating others rights, as well. You live the way you want to be, you wear and let your wife, sister, mother wear the way they want to be but you have not right to portray or paint or comment to any other humanbeing, idvidual or group or community or relogon.
Do you know what Islam is all about? No you do not have a fair idea about it. So please leave it and destroy all your work or remove Islamic women title from your art. This is not WARNING
In my personal opinion art is the creativity but mostly persons like "Emadi" who are mentally sick and distorted take subjects like this to get attention of the people around them. There are so many real dilemma in the present Islamic culture which can be subjected like education, health, non Islamic traditions, Islamic cultural clothing’s etc. More so, Iranian culture is very rich and has so many other subjects which could have been highlighted. In fact in society like "U.S" in particular, the honor of the women has been molested by men just by viewing them as a sexual tool. They have forgotten the teachings of their religion where all women are to treated as the Holy Marry " Hazrat Maryam A.S.W. Emadi is indeed a child who got confused during his brought up in US and has become distorted in his thoughts. He by design can not go beyond the Muslim thinking and also doesn’t have courage to be fully westernized. So, in fact he and his creations do not have any linkage with Islamic ideology. The respect and honor which Alhamdolillah Islam gives to a woman as mother, daughter, sister and respected wife are exemplary. So, it is the time for Emadi and others, to get themself on right track. Just need to think wisely............ and deeply............ ??
In my personal opinion art is the creativity but mostly persons like "Emadi" who are mentally sick and distorted take subjects like this to get attention of the people around them. There are so many real dilemma in the present Islamic culture which can be subjected like education, health, non Islamic traditions, Islamic cultural clothing’s etc. More so, Iranian culture is very rich and has so many other subjects which could have been highlighted. In fact in society like "U.S" in particular, the honor of the women has been molested by men just by viewing them as a sexual tool. They have forgotten the teachings of their religion where all women are to treated as the Holy Marry " Hazrat Maryam A.S.W. Emadi is indeed a child who got confused during his brought up in US and has become distorted in his thoughts. He by design can not go beyond the Muslim thinking and also doesn’t have courage to be fully westernized. So, in fact he and his creations do not have any linkage with Islamic ideology. The respect and honor which Alhamdolillah Islam gives to a woman as mother, daughter, sister and respected wife are exemplary. So, it is the time for Emadi and others, to get themself on right track. Just need to think wisely............ and deeply............ ??
Gosh, I'm really sorry about all of the comments above; you've probably stopped reading these already, for lack of anything save condemnation (any Americans here? Freedom of expression ANYONE?) It's difficult to take time to think about everything we say...but how a piece is interpreted says more about the interpretor then it could ever say about the piece itself.
Personally, I am a Muslim woman and though I feel strongly (in a bad way) about many offenses made to my religion, the style of your Islamic Erotica pieces is clearly a woman in hijjab posing as an early nineties poster advertisement girl. Since this is typical early western portrayal of women, when they were becoming more equal in status, and women in parts of the Middle East are doing the same now, one concludes that the deeper meaning of the hijjab chick with hot legs is really that along with a proud Muslim woman's newfound rights - which she will use to show the world her intellect, abilities, WORTH, and qualities - will come the choice to show one of her more obvious qualities of sexuality.
That was a bit long-winded, but interprets the piece more thoroughly (and correctly) I think. A lot of viewers came at it from the wrong angle, like a sculpture of a breath-taking, life-sized stallion, the most beautiful ever, sculpted from solid alabaster -- can be viewed from the under the ass! What cha' doin' there, buddy?
Anyway, please...excuse my brethren - we can be judgmental once we've begun discerning which actions best follow the will of Allah. But we are great, and will take what we must to raise needed tolerance for coming generations of Muslims - and to give others the same honor we've been given. (Admire us now!) Please don't judge us as harshly as a few of us have judged you.
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