This picture took my breath away…
I find nothing disturbing about this powerfully expressive piece of art. On the contrary, it evoked in me a deep sense of peace, tranquility and inquisitive curiosity. It put a wide smile on my face and stirred a billion pleasant thoughts in my head. Coexistance of the seemingly clashing and “uncoexistance-able” all wrapped up within one picture… one very magnificent picture. What do you see in it? What does it evoke in you? I’m quite sure some of you will find it rather disturbing and maybe even horrifying. Share your thoughts and sentiments in the comments section.
(hat tip and thanks to: Wasalaam)
SudaneseThinker
SudaneseThinker
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Life, Liberty and Private Property. I know many people see peace, but that is only after brave men fougnt valiantly for that privilage. Yes, it is our right. It is everyone’s right. But one must be diligent and always to be prepared to defend that which is so sacred as life, liberty and private property!
Hi Drima. How are you? It certainly is a beautiful picture. Have a great day.
Sorry for the OT… but you gotta see this!
I see a woman who hides herself. What’s she afraid of ? Does she need the world’s greatest military power to hide behind ? She wraps herself in the Stars and Stripes, maybe she needs to emphasize her loyalty to her country. Maybe “someone” said ‘ if you’re not with us,you’re against us’ …..she’s conforming, showing her allegiance to the tribe.
She looks to the sky, maybe praying for victory - on the battlefield or the sports arena.
- or maybe she has a case of real bad hair day..
Sorry, friend, a burka needs more than colour to be appealing.
Actually there are many ways of looking at it. 2 are:
1- Many women wear the hijab or burka all by themselves. Nobody forces them to do so. When they do, they claim that they’re at peace and feel secure. To me it sounds weird but to them it’s a good “modest” feeling. So… in this picture that’s what the American flag represents. It represents an America that protects her and gives her “modesty”. The fact she chose the American flag is expressive in itself. America gave her peace, freedom and the chance to choose what she wants to choose. Freedom is pointless if everybody was going to live the same exact way of life and do everything exactly the same way like each other. This picture expresses to me freedom at its peak even if we don’t agree with her attire. That’s the beauty of freedom. Live and let live. The only way that can happen is in a truly free country. The girl looks above in prayer to find protection from “the heavens” and at the same time she finds protection and security within the freedom of America.
2- The Burka is an oppressive tool which will indicate the girl is being oppressed by America and that she’s praying to God to help her.
I obviously see the 1st and defintely not the 2nd. I know it might seem weird to you but I find this picture very pretty.
you know what’s funny guys? If she wrapped herself up in the Saudi flag, I will have a completely opposite reaction. I guess that says a lot about the way I feel if I had to look at both flags.
Hey Raccoon, ya I know about Abir… My sensay showed us a few moves and gave us a little lecture about it. He was telling us about the different martial arts worldwide…
I do Aikido… Not a pro yet but in another 2 years I will be. Then I’ll kick your Raccoony ass together with the IDF! Muahahahahaha!!
Too bad I don’t know crap about guns… Man, I really want to fire a gun. I want to see how it feels like… All my cousins back home call me sissy since most of them went for military training and some fought in the long bloody civil war.
Drima - hmmmm. After a decade of Northern Shaolin kung-fu… I think my hairy Raccoonish butt is very difficult to kick
Personally, I really like firing guns - the bigger the better. I don’t like war or killing stuff… but I reaaaally enjoy guns
If I try, I can see both possibilities of interpretation. But my first spontaneous reaction was your second way of seeing it, Drima, the oppressed one, who is not allowed to speak up, and prays for help.
I am not sure WHY this is so, but her eyes to me look desperate and sad, and looking for help (maybe by praying) and her gesture is to me more a one of being afraid or unsecure. (Yes, I know she is holding the flag with her hands).
Would be interesting WHY I see it that way. Because her facial expression and gesture really is that way, or because I am not used to judge one’s facial expression without seeing the lower part of a person’s face, or because I do have certain images, stories and also prejudices in mind when I see these mix of symbols?
What would you say about her eyes and the gesture?
Her eyes look sad and seeking for help BUT her hands are actually holding the flag so it won’t fall off… Why would she hold the flag and wrap it around herself if she was afraid of it? Maybe she found comfort in knowing she could have the “individualism” she seeks in what the flag represents…
What stands out for me is not “the burka” but the flag and the girl’s expression… Fear and worry seeking comfort within freedom…
I also look again and see prayer and a flag that enshrines the person’s right to that prayer.
Damn, I LOVE art… I could go on and on about this picture… I just love it… It makes you really think and wonder endlessly…
Reminds of an incident that happened long ago… Once I went for Friday prayers with a T-shirt that had the American flag on it… Some people in the mosque found it offensive that I would come for prayers with that kind of T-shirt. Others found it cool and some didn’t pay attention… I only wore the T-shirt because I had nothing else to wear since… I wasn’t trying to make a statement in the start but ended up doing so by looking back at people who gave me a weird look… I was saying “screw you and what you think” with my T-shirt.
Without reading any further I give you my first impression as I see this pic:
a woman suffocating under the realm of restrictions being forced upon her in her traditional customs.
NOW: I know this is not the case in the US but strangely enough in certain European countries where headscarves are forbidden (and of all weird things in the world: so are they in Turkey and Tunesia)
hmm… “realm of restrictions” not of her traditional customs, but of governmental rules rather (it doesn’t look clear I see as I re-read my comment above - but that’s what I meant).
She’s cold and she’s wrapping up herself in the American flag to feel a little warmer… No?
Hehe, that’s a cute veil! I would wear that if I ever end up covering! »-(¯`v´¯)-»U.S.A.»-(¯`v´¯)-»
Sometimes, a cigar is just a cigar
Well, it certainly seems Drima is learning about one of the main tenets of contemporary western art, namely, that it should not be directly representational of only one meaning, but should be able to inspire a lot of multiple associations and readings that might even conflict with each other. The American flag tends to often elicit those kinds of meanings, and in that sense I find the picture a little juvenile and easy. The flag has been used in so many ways that art work employing it tend to become rathe gimmicky.
But I should throw in one other interpretation: that the burka really is a piece of fetish clothing, just like a black rubber suit and head mask, or one of those black leather hoods sado-masochists sometimes sport. Indeed, when you see women submitting to the burka, whether willingly or not, the notion of sado-masochistic domination and submission games is not too far-fetched. The burka becomes, thus, a secret, deviant source of sexual pleasure.
In that context, of course, the American flag in this picture becomes even more interesting. Pursuit of happiness, anyone?
intresting. I really dont know what to think. I like _ more.
Ah, but nothing compares to the _ in terms of powerful statements.
I will NOT tolerate any insults directed at any religion. I’m also afraid I can’t allow responses of the same nature to such insults.
Angry Libyan Americana, if you wana have a civil discussion you’re more than welcome but I will NOT allow my comments section to turn into a warzone of insults… If you have something of value then say it … Otherwise please don’t.
Drima, I didn’t take Angry Libyan’s comment as an insult. He was merely referring to a real piece of sculpture with exactly that name, controversial as it was. And it was created by an American.
That sculpture inspired a copycat, by some artist in Britain, with exactly the name I referred to.
But it’s your blog, and you have the right to police it as you see fit.
oh…ok… didn’t know that… thanx 4 the info
Drima,
Sorry out of topic but the moderation at sandmonkey is taking forever to get replies. If it doesn’t show up in the next 24 hours, please e-mail me so I can reply to you.
I just don’t understand why he is still doing the moderation. It makes it hard to follow any conversation when the post is not out there and people think there is no reply. He needs tech. help for sure, unless he want to moderate every comment and approve it.
Hi, I’m angry Libyan American and I’m an absolute retard…
Keep posting those filthy comments of yours and I’ll gladly delete them again… and again… and again. The feeling is so much bettern than orgasms. Adios!
well, angry Libyan American, you’re rather pissed off today, who you trying to insult ? Maybe you should go hug a tree or smoke some weed. Piss be upon you.
Any kind of burka makes me think of someone hiding. Whether they hide because they choose to, or because men or some authority figure prefers them to makes no difference. It makes me think of someone with very little self-confidence. May not be true, but that’s what I think of - someone who doesn’t want to reveal her thoughts by her expression. Maybe that’s modest, it may also be sly, or timid.
This particular image makes me think of someone hiding behind a flag, trying to please someone. Kissing up, if you will, trying to please someone other than herself. I don’t care for it. Not so much because I’m American and it’s the flag, but because I don’t like the idea of people hiding.
Any kind of burka makes me think of someone hiding. Whether they hide because they choose to, or because men or some authority figure prefers them to makes no difference. It makes me think of someone with very little self-confidence.
Exactly. Sado-masochistic tendencies are founded on the fact that the subject’s self is fragmented, and lacks a sense of completion as a self (i.e. lacks self-confidence): thus the play with masks, and submission. The self takes refuge in the notion that the self has no identity, save for the one bestowed by a dominant (the problem, of course, is that all people do have an identity and self, whether they want to or not).
The key to remember, though, is that often this kind of play becomes very erotically fulfilling. Thus it is not surprising that beautiful Egyptian movie stars, for example, decide to drop out and embrace the burka: it points to their unease as the locus of the public’s adoration, and their discovery of the erotic thrill in submission to male-decreed domination, symbolized by the burka.
What also keeps the system going is the society-wide sisterhood of fellow submissives under the burka, which brings up yet another aspect of this particular cultural fetish: its ability to make use of possible lesbian tendencies as supports for the continuation of a predominantly male tool for female subjugation. All in all, it’s a very clever system employing sexuality, religion, and the natural tendencies of human diversity to keep itself going as a cultural construct.
In the end, it’s not surprising that so many Muslim women openly embrace the burka, as most of them simply have never thought about the whole psychological significance of what they are doing.
Pretty good composition, but the picture should have been taken further from the subject; the hands and stripe are distorted, detracting from the intended message.
To me, as an American woman, this picture has a bittersweet meaning. It’s rather beautiful, colorful, passionate. But, it also highlights to me the danger we run when we try to impose our view on others. The flag as a burka warns me that the American ideal of freedom isn’t necessarily freedom to others and that wrapping ourselves rightgeously in our flag and conforming to American cultural expectations is just as damaging as our perception of the “stigma” women have by wearing burkas to uphold their cultural expectations. Some like it and feel they are expressing themselves. Others don’t and they resent the perceived cultural requirement. What we wear is a choice and we can choose to make what we wear a political statement or maybe it’s just fashion or maybe it provokes a supportive emotion for us like modesty or safety. It’s not really anybody else’s business what we wear and why we wear it. Same thing goes for what we think. It’s ours to choose and if Americans can’t get that, they are simply substituting the American flag for the burka, and frankly, limiting personal freedom the same way.
Choice is the name of the game, not conformity, force, or obligation. Freedom isn’t about obligation–it’s about a lack of limits, not a requirement to believe the same way as another to be socially acceptable. Long live free dress, free speech, and free thought! People don’t have to die to have it, from my point of view. Freedom was given to us by our Creator, not by a soldier. In order to preserve and cherish our freedom, we must be willing to accept or at least tolerate people that don’t think and do the same as we do. No gun, no killing, just allowance and an open mind. I know I am an idealist, but I am and I am proud of it. Things don’t change without hope and a better vision. I think we can do better than simply force our way of life/thinking/feeling on others. We can have and exercise the courage to not conform if we don’t feel like it.
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