“This text has no other purpose than to frighten those who fear the Arabic language”
THE ISSUE:
The issue I wanted to deal with in this project is “Arabophobia”, or “the fear of Arabs”. Coming from Egypt, I have had to deal with some racist comments at some points in my life. One of which really shocked me was about a couple years ago, when my class in high school went to a trip to Nice in France and two old French ladies screamed “Go back to your country” in French. Another situation that inspired me to make this project in particular was just a couple of weeks ago when the security guy at a bar wouldn’t let my Egyptian friends in a club in Paris just based on the fact that they speak Arabic or that they are from Egypt.
THE PROTOTYPE:
For my prototype, I wanted to take a picture in front of many clubs in Paris with the Egyptian flag on my shoulder.
THE CRITIQUE:
In the class critique for my prototype, most of the comments were around the fact that I should make the subject more general, so that the issue is not only about Egypt but about all Arab countries because like Egyptians, other Arabs receive the same kind of racism. So I was thinking about what is the most obvious thing that unites all Arab countries, and that is the Arabic language. This became the main focus of my project.
THE FINAL PROJECT:
The drawing concepts:
The pictures:
Unfortunately, people who face islamophobia the most are those who wear traditional or religious outfits in public such as the hijab or the burqa. Some people automatically associate these people with violence or terrorism when it is almost never the case, and they are often just innocent people practicing their religions. So I decided to convey his controversy of innocence/violence through the images I took which are just regular images of a suitcase, someone holding a marker and the eyes of a woman seen through two sheets covering the rest of her face. Doing my research for this project, I found out that since 2011, it has become illegal to wear the burqa in France, which is just another religious veil worn by women like the hijab but that covers most of the face. However, I thought to myself: How would people view these pictures differently if I added Arabic text on the pictures? Will they feel fear? Or feel threatened in a way? Or would they just feel uncomfortable because they don’t understand Arabic like many other languages? So would it be the same if it was in another language that they didn’t understand and not Arabic? Ultimately, the idea was that the text wouldn’t have any meaning, but it is just a way to play on this controversy against the Arabic language, and challenge those who fear Arabs.
The text:
“لا يوجد أي هرف لهذا النص إلا نشر الرعب في من يهاب اللغة العربية”
“This text has no other purpose than to frighten those who fear the Arabic language”
The final product:
With the text on the images, Islamophobes will probably associate the first picture with “bombs”, second image with the “burqa” and third with “gun or violence”. Since I wanted to get reaction from people, if I had more time with this project I would print a lot of these posters and put them all around the walls of Paris and film the reactions of people who walk pass it. People who can read Arabic will probably take it in a funny way, but it can also be a sad reminder to some. Other people may feel uneasy or even threatened to the extremes since they don’t understand it.
THE CRITIQUES:
-who is the project addressing? everyone or only Arabic speaking people?
-place of presentation : classroom wall? street wall?
-film reactions