Muslim women in the West have been battling inaccurate stereotypes for ages. In the post-Sept. 11 era, Muslim women have come to be seen as one-dimensional figures in need of saving by the “West” and lacking dynamism or the ability to act. This month, a visual art exhibit opening in Toronto aims to challenge those representations.

(Mus)interpreted is presented by the Truth and Dare Project and organized by artist Zahra Agjee and curated by Agjee and her team, including Samaa Ahmed, Iman Bhatti and Leila Fatemi. The annual show, now in its fifth year, showcases the work of emerging and established Muslim artists in the Toronto area and in so doing, opens up spaces for Muslim women to narrate their own stories.

The curators say the show provides insights into “the diverse realities of Muslim women” and is a “collective envisioning of a self-determined and inclusive future.”

Since Sept. 11, 2001, Muslim women have been regularly caricatured and portrayed as politically flat. These caricatures are then deployed in the service of nationalism and empire.

The show challenges the standard corrective approach to misrecognition. The artists do not just “correct” inaccurate stereotypes; they make claims to complex and emancipatory identities.

Source: The Conversation