30 May, 2024

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• What challenged you?

• What surprised you?

• What do you feel you learned? 

Consider also the points raised in the presentation. What factors influence how you might read and interpret photographs? Think about: 

• Your family and social background and your heritage. 

• Your upbringing, values and education. 

• The kind of art you were exposed to and at what points in your life. 

• You have been exposed to the literature and philosophical and/or political ideas. 

• Significant changes or events in your life that might have shifted your perspective when it comes to ‘decoding’ images. 

Write a short post in the form below reflecting on how you read these two images. What are their similarities, and how do they differ? You are free to research further before considering your response. You should also consider the different dates, the photographers and the titles used here.

Steve McCurry's "Afghan Girl" (1985) and Jodi Bieber's "Bibi Aisha" (2009) both focus on the lives of Afghan women and have a powerful emotional impact. McCurry's photo captures the resilience of refugees during a time of war, while Bieber's image exposes the harsh realities of domestic violence and the fight for women's rights. Both images also highlight the political aspect of photographing veiled women, bringing attention to the challenges these women face and the communities they represent and possibly aiming to create a romanticized portrayal of the struggles in the third world.

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The burqa also serves as a political representation of veiled women, both physically and philosophically. Historian Kumani Jayawarden connects the Western obsession with lifting the veil to economics: "Capital needs free, unconstrained bodies for work. Anything that restricts women's mobility can damage capitalism's chances for a source of cheap labour."   (ZIEGER, 2008: 273)

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References:

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JBIEBER. 2015. ‘Aisha’. Jodi Bieber [online]. Available at: https://www.jodibieber.com/aisha/ [accessed 17 Jun 2024]

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STROCHLIC, Nina. 2017. ‘Famed “Afghan Girl” Finally Gets a Home’. National Geographic [online]. Available at: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/pages/article/afghan-girl-home-afghanistan [accessed 17 Jun 2024].

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TONDO, Lorenzo and Eric HILAIRE. 2021. ‘“It’s Heartbreaking”: Steve McCurry on Afghan Girl, a Portrait of Past and Present’. The Guardian [online]. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/sep/20/its-heartbreaking-steve-mccurry-on-afghan-girl-a-portrait-of-past-and-present [accessed 17 Jun 2024].

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DINAH, Zeiger. 2008. ‘18 That (Afghan) Girl!: Ideology Unveiled in National Geographic’. In The Veil: Women Writers on Its History, Lore, and Politics. University of California Press, pp. 266-280 (15 pages). Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt1pnq61.23 [accessed 18 Jun 2024].

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ALEX, Long. 2014. ‘Teaching Women’s Rights and the Imperialist Agenda’. Feminist Teacher Vol. 24(No. 3), [online], pp. 234-241 (8 pages). Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/femteacher.24.3.0234 [accessed 18 Jun 2024].