الفنون

Yemeni patterns 

Maryam Şahinyan

Maryam Şahinyan (1911 - 1996) was a famed Armenian photographer who is considered the first woman studio photographer in Turkey. Maryam Şahinyan was born in the city of Sivas (Sepastia). Her grandfather, Agop Şahinyan Paşa, was the representative of Sivas in the first Ottoman Parliament established in 1877. After the Armenian Genocide of 1915, at the age of 4, Maryam Şahinyan escaped to Istanbul via Samsun leaving behind many assets. The family settled in Istanbul and soon adjusted to a new lifestyle under the Republican Era of the Turkish Republic. She attended the local Armenian school Esayan.

Maryam Şahinyan’s father Mihran was avidly interested in photography. In 1933 he began to work for the Galatasaray Photography Studio in the Beyoğlu district of Istanbul. In 1936, Maryam’s mother Dikranuhi died a sudden death and left the family financially strained. Due to these circumstances, Maryam was forced to dropout of the French School Sainte-Pulchérie she attended in order to help her father out in the studio. By 1937, in order to assist the financial burden of the family, she started managing the studio independently. Maryam Şahinyan managed the studio until 1985. She died at her home on Hanımefendi Sokak in Şişli in 1996 and is buried in Şişli Armenian Cemetery. Şahinyan left behind a photographic archive made up of approximately 200,000 images. She knew French, Italian, Armenian and Turkish.

This photoset features subjects ranging from transgendered people and members of disenfranchised religious and ethnic groups to wealthy women, identical twins, babies and long-haired beauties. 

Everyday Is a Holiday dir. Dima El-Horr (2009)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LneTmKxQzkY

هذه الحبقة الأولى على القناة الرسمية بالعربية الفصحى:

Atena Farghadani is a 28-year-old Iranian artist. She was recently sentenced to 12 years and 9 months in prison for drawing a cartoon.

This cartoon, that she posted on her Facebook page last year, depicts members of the Iranian parliament as animals. It was drawn in protest of new legislature in Iran that will restrict access to contraception and criminalise voluntary sterilisation. Atena’s charges include ‘spreading propaganda against the system’ and ‘insulting members of parliament through paintings’.

Last August, 12 members of the elite Revolutionary Guard came to Atena’s house, blindfolded her and took her to the infamous Evin Prison in Tehran. According to Amnesty International:

“While in prison last year, Atena flattened paper cups to use them as a surface to paint on. When the prison guards realised what she had been doing, they confiscated her paintings and stopped giving her paper cups. When Atena found some cups in the bathroom, she smuggled them into her cell. Soon after, she was beaten by prison guards, when she refused to strip naked for a full body search. Atena says that they knew about her taking the cups because they had installed cameras in the toilet and bathroom facilities – cameras detainees had been told were not operating.”

She was released in November and gave media interviews and posted a video on YouTube detailing her beatings, constant interrogations and humiliating body searches. She was then rearrested possibly in retaliation for speaking out and has been imprisoned ever since. In January, Atena went on a hunger strike to protest the horrible prison conditions. Her health suffered dramatically, and after losing consciousness and suffering a heart attack in February, she was forced to eat again.

The quote used in the comic is taken from the speech Atena gave at her trial. It has been translated into English by the Free Atena Facebook page. You can read the whole thing here.

Time is now against her, she has just two weeks to lodge an appeal. Michael Cavna, comic journalist for The Washington Post, has launched a campaign appealing to artists to help bring awareness to Atena’s case by creating their own artwork in support of Atena and using the hashtag#Draw4Atena. Can a bunch of artists and a hashtag really make a difference and put pressure on the Iranian Government to release Atena? Probably not. But just remember that Atena is currently in prison enduring horrible conditions, and if her appeal isn’t successful, she will be there for another twelve years. FOR DRAWING A CARTOON AND POSTING IT ON FACEBOOK. Don’t we owe it to her to at least try?

Alot worse actually happens out there.. once Being a soldier (which turned me into an activist) showed me..

 منير الشعراني ( Mouneer Alshaarani )

Indo-Islamic Poster Art [x]

Among various forms of popular art found in India’s public spaces, an important category is the religious posters and calendars depicting deities, saints, and places of worship. Besides posters that deal with recognizable Hindu subject matter, one finds images with Muslim themes, typically portraying the shrines at Mecca and Medina, Quranic verses in calligraphy, the portraits of local Sufi saints, their tombs, miracles, and other folklore. Since a poster or calendar is frequently meant to decorate the walls of a home, its imagery is always bright and attractive - young women or children shown as embodiments of perfect innocence and beauty and a pious character.

Descriptions, left to right, top to bottom:

Picture 1: [x]

Poster showing a Muslim woman praying before icons of Mecca and Medina in an alcove. 

Artist: Kareem, publisher J B Khana, Chennai, circa 1990

Picture 2: [x]

An elder sister teaches her brother to learn to read the Qur’an – a common image used in homes with children.

Artist: unknown, Publisher: JB Khanna & Co., date: circa 2000 

Picture 3: [x]

Muslim boy in Turkish cap. This kind of cap with a hairy tail on the top, clearly of Turkish origin, was in vogue among the Muslim elite until the middle of 20th century. Shrines of Mecca and Medina in the backdrop

Artist: H.R.Raja, Publisher: unknown, date: circa 1990

Picture 4: [x]

A chubby Muslim boy praying. The cap and dress are always well-embroidered

Artist: unknown, Publisher: unknown, date: circa 1990

Picture 5: [x]

Allah-o-Akbar (The God is great). The little mu’azzin – a Muslim baby calling out for prayers, wearing an Arab’s headscarf – an ideal image to condition children towards an “Arab” identity.

Artist: unknown, Publisher: JB Khanna & Co., date: circa 2000

Picture 6: [x]

A Muslim boy reading Qur’an. The mature body features of the little boy make him look like a miniature version of a fully grown “Muslim” man. One can see a building like Lucknow'sImambara (Shia shrine) at the back.

Artist: unknown, Publisher: Brijbasi, date: circa 1990

Picture 7:  [x]

Ya Ghaus-e Azam: a woman pays her homage to the shrine of Saint Abdul Qadir Jilani in Baghdad (Iraq) who is considered in high esteem by all Sufis in South Asia. The devotee wears typically north Indian dress while the saint’s miracles (of saving a drowning boat and others) are seen in the backdrop. It rare to see an Indian poster showing the persona of a saint.

Artist: unknown, Publisher: Brijbasi, date: circa 1990

Picture 8: [x]

A praying Muslim lady, who looks like the actress Waheeda Rehman, has a swelling tear about to fall from her eye. Notice her rather dull and homely dress unlike the flashy tones one usually finds in posters – even the mosque in the background is in monochrome.

Artist: Syed Arts, Original painting, circa 1970

Picture 9: [x]

A praying Muslim woman with the Qur’an – gilded with shiny golden paint to make the image look more decorative and consecrated.

Artist: unknown, Publisher: unknown, date: circa 1990