After a week of shocking violence against Arab women, Nourie Flayhan is turning to art to make a stand.
The Lebanese illustrator, 31, who lives in Dubai, has created a series of portraits, showing the faces of the three women from around the Arab world, who were killed in recent days.
The first, Nayera Ashraf, was a student at Egypt’s Mansoura University. On June 20, Ashraf, aged 21, had her throat slit in front of hundreds of horrified onlookers.
Three days later, on June 23, Iman Rashid, 21, was shot dead on campus at the Applied Science Private University in Amman. Her killer, a man in his late thirties who police identified as Oday Hassan, shot himself days after the attack and died later in hospital.
And on June 24, Lubna Mansour, an engineering student from Jordan, was stabbed to death as she got into her car close to her home in Sharjah. The perpetrator fled the scene in her car, with her body inside, and was caught by police hours later. While police have not identified the killer, they said the man admitted killing the woman owing to what he said was a "personal dispute".
Flayhan was inspired to pay tribute to all three women after hearing their stories, creating an illustration for each, which have since been liked and shared hundreds of times across social media.
“Whenever I hear or read of a story that deeply impacts me, I create art to raise awareness and spread the stories of the voiceless around,” she tells The National. “I was deeply disturbed by the series of killings and felt I had to use my platform to talk about them.”
Flayhan’s work, which she has been creating since 2014, is often inspired by the stories of women and women’s rights in the region.
“Honestly, the news hit a lot of people hard and shook a lot of people,” she says. “People have been sharing the portraits and opening conversations on their platforms, and in turn, have inspired other artists from the region to use their platforms too to create and share their art.”
Each picture shows the face of the women, drawn in fine line pen, surrounded by a blue background covered with a floral design. Each has attracted hundreds of comments, with people sharing tributes and heartfelt messages for the women.
“It’s been humbling for sure to see,” Flayhan says. “I’m just so glad people are talking about the violence women are facing.”
Dubai exhibition Eyes Wide Shut explores female trauma and healing — in pictures
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Firetti Contemporary gallery at Dubai’s Alserkal Avenue has is holding its first all-female exhibition titled Eyes Wide Shut. Curated by Celine Azem, Mara Firetti and Oceane Sailly, the show features 10 women artists of different generations and levels. All photos: Firetti Contemporary -
Firetti Contemporary is known primarily for its displays of digital and abstract art. -
The exhibition's 10 artists are from the UAE, Iran, Armenia, Ukraine, Palestine, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Kuwait. -
Artist Negin Fallah next to her works. -
Artist Amina Yahia with her work 'Ya Aghla Ism Fi El Wogood'. -
The centrepiece of Eyes Wide Shut is Kuwaiti artist Alymamah Rashed’s 'My eye splits your love to hold us closer to our depths (I will meet you there)', a floor-to-ceiling watercolour occupying the gallery’s back wall. -
Emirati artist Khawla Almarzooqi’s canvases are surreal meditations on the emotions that are caused by the constrictions placed on the female mind and body. -
'The clothed Maja' by Emirati artist Khawla Almarzooqi. -
Lebanese-Armenian artist Annie Kurkdjian was inspired by her experiences of civil war in Beirut and her grandmother’s traumatic memories of the Armenian genocide. -
An untitled work by Lebanese-Armenian artist Annie Kurkdjian. -
Palestinian artist Qamar Abdulmalik, who lives in Saudi Arabia, uses the fantastical to comment on politics. -
Flush with images of passports, Qamar Abdulmalik's artworks exaggerate the absurdity of an undocumented immigrant’s quotidian challenges. -
One of the collages by Palestinian artist Qamar Abdulmalik. -
Having spent her early childhood in Kharkiv, Ukraine, before relocating to Kuwait, multidisciplinary artist Amani Althuwani melds childhood fairytales with Kuwaiti marriage traditions and rituals. -
Collectively, Amani AlThuwani's works mourn the catastrophic destruction of a place that holds her earliest memories, and how her own children may not be able to experience them. -
Maria Shapranova’s mixed-media collages use Ukrainian symbolism in pop art-style to portray the resilience of Ukrainian women. -
Maria Shapranova uses bold scarlet shades to evoke blood — literally and metaphorically — as well as colours of the Ukrainian flag as backdrops for cleverly cut images. -
Egyptian painter and visual artist Amina Yahia. -
Emirati visual artist Afra Al Suwaidi. -
Ukrainian artist Maria Shapranova. -
Syrian artist and architect Sawsan Al Bahar. -
Kuwaiti artist Alymamah Rashed. -
Lebanese-Armenian artist Annie Kurkdjian. -
Iranian artist Negin Fallah. -
Palestinian artist Qamar Abdulmalik. -
Ukraine-born Kuwaiti artist Amani AlThuwani. -
Emirati artist Khawla Almarzooqi. -
The curators of Eyes Wide Shut, from left to right, Oceane Sailly, Mara Firetti and Celine Azem.
