'DAWRA'

 

 

At its core, ‘DAWRA’ (cycle) is a dream-self exploration of what it means to exist between different identities and cultures. Told through the performance of rituals, the video explores questions and tensions of Arab Muslim femininity - ranging from aversion, rebellion, and refusal to that of desire, acceptance, and legacy. The video’s lack of aesthetic conformity is a formal mechanism used to further emphasize the difficulty of attributing ones identity. 

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I chose to tell the story through the ritual of Sukar (sugar waxing) in order to confront the perpetuation of normative tropes of femininity while simultaneously acknowledging the intimate, generational communities of care that are built and maintained, among Arab women, through such ~beautification~ processes. 

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I use self-orientalizing performances as a primary technique to further draw out normative femininities that are cast upon the Arab woman. By playing with stereotypical assumptions, I explore my own personal negotiations of code switching and the internal dilemmas that surface when trying to exist in the field of ~in-between~

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The video integrates archival visual & sonic footage of family in order to address questions of how diasporas happen and again, pay homage to the networks of kinship and care that arise out of beauty rituals. 

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In this video, I cast my personal identity as a means of exploring the larger socio-political topics of: femininity, beauty, sexuality, and Islam.