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In Photos: The Other Hijab and the Blurred Identity of Women in the Arab World

September 12, 2021

Behind most renowned male photographers in the Middle East, there was usually a woman assistant in the background. Women have played multiple yet undocumented roles since the emergence of photography in the region in the mid-19th century as assistants in photography studios or as photographers, though historians are now discovering evidence of women photographers working in studios after years of disregard. Historian Stephen Sheehi notes that the reason why it is so difficult to know the full history of the role women played in early Middle Eastern photography is that most women worked in separate rooms in the studios and behind the scenes. For instance, during early Ottoman photographic studios, there were specific rooms for women photographers. This is also because the female models at the time were more comfortable working with a woman photographer rather than a male photographer, and so photographs of women were done in ‘secret rooms’. “While the origins of the photography of Middle Eastern women remain to be explored more thoroughly, it is clear that Arab, Armenian and expatriate women were central to the production of indigenous photography in the Middle East from its earliest…


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