Look at me//Look at you

What does it mean to look? 

To look someone full in the face and hold their gaze? 

What does it mean to look as a woman? 

As an Arab/Egyptian woman? 

And who is doing the looking back? 

In this photo series, I attempt to explore and complicate the politics of looking relations and how they pertain to bodies such as my own. I'm inspired by Black American scholar bell hook’s concept of the “oppositional gaze,” a gaze that invokes political resistance against the oppressor. Women’s bodies, such as my own, who come from where I do, have historically and systematically been subject to heavy surveillance, policing, fetishization, and objectification. What does it mean then to look back? 

The eye is a powerful symbol. I like doodling it on my skin, on my pictures. I like both hiding behind it and turning it on you, the onlooker. I think part of my fascination with the eye stems from my culture. Think of the evil eye. The eye that threatens to upend our lives and snatch away our blessings. The eye to me also symbolizes confidence. As a painfully awkward kid, when someone looked me in the eye, they seemed to establish a sense of dominance and authority over me. Learning to look back took bravery, therapy, and time. The eye can also mean tenderness. A non-physical caress of the soul. And when you're a non-white woman, it can mean defiance, resistance of the patriarchal, orientalist gaze. The eye is power/vulnerability/ancient/current/me/you. Look at me//look at you.