Stone Faces and Transparent Veils - Architectural Association ...

STONE FACES AND TRANSPARENT VEILS

Hessa AlBader

Tutors Mark Campbell Pier Vittorio Aurilli & Maria Shéhérazade Giudici

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HOW DO YOU FACE A CAMERA?

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Mark, Garanger; Femmes Algériennes 1960, Atlantica (2002)

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T H I S WA S T H E F I R S T T I M E T H E S E WOMEN FACED A CAMERA.

B U T I T WA S A G A I N S T T H E I R O W N WILL.

Fig.1:Portrait of Cherid Barkoun Mark, Garanger; Femmes Algériennes 1960, Atlantica (2002)

Ston e Fa c es an d Tr ans p are nt Ve i l s

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In fact these Algerian women were detained and physically stripped of their veils by the French Army

during the Algerian War (1956-62). Prior to that moment, these women’s faces and hair had never been exposed in public. It had been shielded away from view underneath a veil. The reason behind this violent unveiling is a law enforced by the French army requiring all Algerians to carry French identity cards at all times. This meant they needed to be photographed.

The French army photographer Marc Garanger was one of the photographers instructed to take these portraits. When the army arrived at an Algerian settlement they would detain and physically strip local women of their veil. This unveiling was compulsory. “Each woman would be photographed once, on a single frame, seated on a stool against a white wall.” 1 For the first time in their adult life these women’s faces were exposed in public, the sense of violation was extreme. The response of these women is still to this day, encapsulated in their direct stare into the lens, the eyes of the photographer, and eventually upon the viewer. The intensity within the photographs clearly communicates and documents the different reactions of the women; some with angry glaring eyes, and others more placid. Through scrutinizing the portrait of Cherid Barkaoun (Fig.1) one immediately notices distinction between the eyes and the rest of the face, which seems to have a distinctly different patina. The eyes are the only part of the face that were publically exposed. A layer of black kohl is heavily painted around the eyes, emphasizing them and the intensity of the angry gaze. The eyes are distinctively different from the rest of the face, this is perhaps shaped through their exposure, the multitude of images have been embossed upon the skin, marking the wrinkles and reactions that the eyes have seen the rest of the face doesn’t seem to have aged in a similar manner. The skin retains a virginity endured by its concealment, because of its lack of exposure lack of reaction or interaction with the outside. Through observing these photographs, one senses an apparent difference between the faces of the Algerian women in contrast with those of unveiled women we see on the everyday streets. This difference is not due to ethnicity but a result of the skin’s exposure in public. There is an unconscious reaction between our faces and the public sphere. Public exposure of the face has seemingly made our faces develop in relation to other faces, to the city, which ultimately becomes imprinted upon our skin over time, creating facial characteristics and certain gestures or patterns of behavior, which are replicated or imitated and unconsciously imbedded in the way we move our faces in relation to spaces or other faces. In contrast the veiled faces have not been subjected to social discipline; these faces were never exposed in public and thus never needed to publically respond to other faces. There is always a division (or barrier) between their faces and the public, which is that of the burqa (a textile covering the face varying in material and opacity, this distinction of materiality is indicative of the geographical background of the woman disguised behind it). One of the key distinctions of the Algerian women’s faces can be found on their lips for instance. The way the lips of these women are disciplined is completely different from the way exposed lips are disciplined; in the case of eating for instance, the veiled woman eats from underneath the veil, such that the spoon is brought up to the lips diagonally, and because Islamic law

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Leo Hsu, Marc Garanger and NYPH10, 20 May 2010. http://www.foto8.com/new/online/blog/1197-marc-garanger-and-nyph10


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Fig.2:Resistance



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prefers that one eat with their right hand only, it will be most convenient to eat from her right side. Therefore, there is an inclination for the lips to be distorted towards the right in most of these faces. The way the lips respond to the spoon is therefore much more different than an exposed face for which the spoon would most likely be brought up towards the center of the mouth. This distortion of facial features in the everyday activities means that the facial gymnastics differ; distinguishing these faces. What gradually becomes apparent in these portraits is that it is not just the faces of these women that are significant but their hands too. The hands allow for a deeper reading of the emotions of these women. In the case of Cherid (fig.1), her hands show fragility as she covers her chest and places her arms across her heart, protecting herself from the photographer, protecting, what remains to be hers, her body. These women however are not weak, regardless of the language barrier between the photographer and the photographed subjects; there is a strong form of resistance encapsulated in these photographs which can be seen from the postures of these women but predominantly from their direct stare into the camera (fig.2). The photographs are an embodiment of conflict and violence that takes shape on various scales. The first is through the act of unveiling the women, they are stripped off, their bodies unwillingly violated through the forceful removal of the veil, thus the elimination of a division they placed between their bodies throughout their adult life and the public. The second is through the confrontation of their unveiled faces in the presence of a man, the photographer, casts his eyes onto forbidden bodies. The third is through the confrontation with the camera, they sit waiting to be shot at point-blank by the camera, and the singularity of this movement could be translated as that of a victim and a perpetrator. The women reciprocate this violence rather than showing vulnerability, they violently glare back into the camera as an act of resistance. The photographer initially receives this violence, which later transcends onto the viewer of these photographs. The fourth violence is an ethical and religious one, which is in the representation of the human figure, a violation forbidden by Islam.


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Fig.3:Resistance



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The women stares back at the photographer with confusion. (fig.3) Confusion by the situation she is in, her unveiling, the machine pointed at her, she is in a completely unfamiliar setting. She seems lost, and unable to comprehend the situation. The woman’s face, however, was probably not veiled, and this we can tell from the drastic distinction of the skin on her forehead, where there is a clear mark of skin between the skin that has been exposed to the public, to the weather, and this exposure is engraved into the skin, as marks and wrinkles, perhaps even unconscious mannerisms or behaviors which, are embedded more strongly than others. The patina of her skin, is very different to the other faces that have been veiled, her skin reveals age and experiences that have been embossed over time. Her face in comparison to the veiled faces, has clearly been socialized, it has clearly weathered the patina of her skin holds the memory of her life, which is embedded in the wrinkles of her face. Even if we compare the exposed skin with the unexposed skin, we find there is a great differentiation, on the one hand the skin on her upper forehead, is sterile it has no indication of age or life. It retains virginity. But then there is a dramatic shift between that and the exposed skin. Particularly in terms of the wrinkles, there is no indication of any wrinkles an impact time.


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F i g . 4 : P r o p h e t ’s M o s q u e i n M a d i n a ( S a u d i A r a b i a ) Redrawn by Author


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DEFINING THE VEIL

Perhaps what fundamentally becomes apparent through the Marc Garanger’s photographs is the

absence of the veil. Which triggers the question: what does it mean to veil? Veiling had a clear presence through history, in various geographical contexts. The reasons behind it vary culturally, however, it is always defined as an enclosure or a form of distinction. However, what is at stake in these photographs is the Islamic veil. Understanding the veil etymologically clarifies the spatial and conceptual dynamics of the veil. The veil in Arabic is the hijab which literally translating into ‘curtain’ or ‘screen’. It’s meaning is establishing a boundary to protect or to separate. The word hijab has also been used to refer to anatomical parts of the body such as the diaphragm (hijab al jawf- hijab of the stomach) or the eyebrows (al hajibain), according to Lisan al Arab (Language of the Arabs), the eyebrows are “the two bones above the eye with their muscles and their hairs… they are so named because they protect the eye from the sun’s rays.” 2 The hijab can be understood spatially as a medium that establishes a threshold and divides two spaces, it can also be understood as a negatively as an intellectual barrier in Sufi teachings. The first Quaranic verse ‘revealed’ was verse 53 of sura 33 in 627 AD.3 The context of this revelation is clarifies the meaning and the concept of the hijab. According to Al Tabbarri, who reported Anas ibn Malek: On the prophets wedding night, he hosted guests in his house for a wedding dinner; three of the guests however, overstayed their visit. Upon leaving, a man went back to the prophet’s nuptial chambers to let him know that the guests are leaving. It was then when “he put one foot in the room and kept the other outside. It was in this position that he let fall a sitr [curtain] between himself and me, and the verse of the hijab descended at that moment.”4 The drawing of the curtain between two men here illustrates the hijab as distinguishing two spaces, and what is being highlighted here is that they are public and private spaces, distinguishing the space of sexuality and public space. Although the notion of hijab seems to be exclusive to women, it was not initially gender based, in fact, it was used by both the sexes for various reasons. An Islamic adoption of a masculine hijab could be traced back to the fifth caliph Muawiya (909-1171), who implemented hijab al-caliph or hijab al-amir (hijab of the prince) in order to escape the public gaze. The caliph blocked himself behind a hijab, establishing a “barrier between the sovereign from the people” 5 thus making himself inaccessible. For the prophet this was considered as a grave act because it altered the Islamic relation between a sovereign and the people. This is apparent the first mosque in Medina (Saudi Arabia) and the prophet’s house. (Fig.4) The mosque retained domestic characteristics, allowing people of all classes and sexes to enter. The mosque was a space of congregation, Friday prayer plays a fundamental role in Islam, where it was a place of congregation and meeting point between the religious leader and the people. However, after the death of the prophet, the caliphs moved away from the prophet’s mosque, gradually altering the political nature of Islam, which was based on a direct relation between the ‘sovereign’ and the people. Muawiya the fifth caliph established a further barrier through implementing a hijab, that constructed a hierarchy and barrier between himself and the people he governed, whereas the Islam that was lead by the prophet highlighted a much more direct relation between people and subject. Sufism offers an abstract reading of the hijab. A person who was mahjub (veiled) was one who’s “consciousness is determined by sensual or material passion and who as a result does not perceive divine light in his soul.”6 Thus a mahjub is one who is trapped in earthly delights and is unable “to experiment with elevated states of consciousness.” 7 Elevated consciousness can only be obtained through the enabling ones capacity for “multiple perceptions” which can only be gained through an elimination of a hijab. Thus there should be no hijab between the worshiper and Allah, as any form of hijab is considered

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Ibn Manzour, Lisan Al-Arab ( The Arab Tongue), hijab All scholars are in agreement with the date but month varies Tabari, Tafsir, Dar al- Ma’rifa edn. Vol.22 p.26 5 Fatima Mernissi, Forgotton Queens of Islam. P.79 6 Fatima Mernissi, Beyond the Veil: Male-female dynamics in Muslim Society, p.95 7 Fatima Mernissi, Beyond the Veil: Male-female dynamics in Muslim Society, p.95 3 4


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as a barrier from enlightenment, thus the Sufi must constantly seek to break hijabs and barriers to seek elevated forms of consciousness in Sufism one should be able to capacity for multiple perceptions The concept of hijab is imperative to Islamic understanding, conceptually; it is a form of social construction. The relation between dressing and social construction is evident throughout history. In 1790 BC Hammurabi, the ruler of Babylon (from 1796 to 1750 BC), introduced the first veil known as the Hammurabi Code. This was a law of female dressing, this law stated that a veil must be worn by aristocratic women but forbade prostitutes from wearing it, in fact if a prostitute was found wearing it she was punishable by law. In essence this law was placed to regulate sexual consumerism, through dividing the female population into “consumable commodities and inaccessible goods.”8 Three key notions are at stake here: the commoditization of sexuality, the female body, and social hierarchy. The privatization of the body through clothing, distinguished that body not only through its appearance but it stopped it from being consumed.9 The way of dressing represented class, tribes, power and wealth, ultimately allowing for a social reading of a society. Meaning it created a visual class distinction. The Muslim veil in the seventh century placed according to Fatima Mernissi in order to control bodily sexual consumerism, by allowing everyone to walk around the temples of in Mecca fully clothed, thus eliminating class distinctions, but the in introduction of the female veil came to “emphasize the quasisacred duty to control the desire to consume sexual pleasures (hawa).” 10 However, I would argue that veiling itself is not neutral and can be seen as a sexual provocation, as it’s a dialogue the seen and the unseen, therefore, if the female figure is associated with desire then veiling as a concept rather than the Islamic veil, highlights this further, as the veiled body is or the dressed body is more provocative than the completely naked body. Therefore, I think the concept of the veil derives as a form of rationalizing the female figure and femininity. Which, if anything, demonstrates an immense sense of power within the female form. The long history of dressing the female body is intrinsically linked to the containment of female sexuality. Furthermore, the female body is regarded as the embodiment of desire. The body is “seen as an inadequate enclosure because [its] boundaries are convoluted. While it is made up of the same material as a man’s body, it has been turned inside out.” 11 The body remains provocative and desirable, therefore, it is clothed and contained in two scales: one is through dressing and the other is through containing it within the house. Throughout history the role of women has been problematic particularly in the public sphere. The need for female containment derives from the need to contain female sexuality, which is fluid by nature; it disregards spatial boundaries and is capable of altering spaces. Sexuality ultimately triggers desire. Desire, is a perplexing and powerful sensation, its power lies in its boundlessness, it is feminine by nature. Desire is described as being “itself a woman that masters men.” 12 Thus it is threatening, precisely because it triggers emotions that cannot be rationalized and may lead to irrational behavior; rationality and reason, according to both Alberti and Xenophon, are masculine traits. The loss of reason triggered by desire also means emasculation and subsequently a fall of male power through conforming to feminine characteristics. Evidently, such submission was out of the question, and men searched for ways of containing such traits.

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Fatima Mernissi, Beyond the Veil: Male-female dynamics in Muslim Society, p.11 “ A woman from the Arab tribes, who was circumnutating, thus said: ‘today some or all of it can be seen, by what can be seen I do not allow to be consumed’ this was their custom until Allah sent the Prophet Muhammad, prayer be upon him and peace.’ 9”9 quoted from Fatima Mernissi translation of Al- Azraqi’s Akhbbar Makka, edited by Dr Ali Omar, Maktabtat at-taqafa ad-Diniya, Cairo, 2003 edition, Vol.1, p.140 Fatima Mernissi, Beyond the Veil: Male-female dynamics in Muslim Society, p.12 10 Fatima Mernissi, Beyond the Veil: Male-female dynamics in Muslim Society, p.14 11 Mark Wigley, ‘Untitled: The Housing of Gender’ in Sexuality and Space ed. Beatriz Colomina p.358 12 Mark Wigley, ‘Untitled: The Housing of Gender’ in Sexuality and Space ed. Beatriz Colomina p.343 9


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FORMS OF VEILING

Through personal interpretation, Islamic teachings indicate a clear distinction between the body and the

soul. The body is regarded as a portal that does not belong to the individual but to God, therefore, body is not your personal property, but one, which is given. For this reason, permanent distortions of the body are prohibited, including tattoos.13 However, tattooing had a long history in North Africa in particular as it can be associated with the Berber tribes, who follow a particular branch of Islam, that retains elements of atavistic animism: “a belief that supernatural energy (Baraka) resides in all things. Berber tattoo design holds the sacred energy of Baraka, which can be used to deal with the darker forces of life, to cure illnesses and to protect oneself against sprits called jnoun.14”15 North African women consider certain types of tattoos lawful, claiming that the ghemaza (tattoo between the eyebrows) and siyala (tattoo on the chin) are dedicated to the daughter of the prophet Fatima Zahra. The tattoo again, is a form of veiling in itself, its hiding of the skin. Perhaps in this case less so than in indigenous cultures whereby the nakedness of the body is hidden behind a coded or sacred messages that are imprinted onto the skin. The skin works as a mediator between the ink and the skin. The very nature of the skin is its porosity, it is a dynamic breathing surface that is in constant dialogue between the weather and the external conditions, and responds accordingly in each case as well. This porosity creates a responsive veil rather than one at stasis.

Makeup is a form of veiling, it acts as a mask that can be painted but can be built up to an extent that it becomes a thick surface, plastering the face, protecting the skin, not allowing for the porosity but completely hiding the flesh of the face. The flesh of Greta Garbo’s face in Queen Christina is completely hidden, it is sculpted in what Roland Barthes describes as a ‘snowy-thickness of the mask’16, and her face represented an ultimate state of perfection and beauty. Garbo retained an eternal state of beauty. She literally veiled herself, through making her face inaccessible and unseen as she aged. Her face retained a permanent state of youth, beauty, and perfection that was forever contained within the realm of the cinema and photographs. She was described as The Divine. Makeup (making-up) The word itself implies constructing; formulating what may be referred to as a new identity. Disguising or masking the flesh, and in turn constructing a new surface. Although it seems to suggest a form of veiling, it is simultaneously a form of unveiling, that on the one hand takes form through reconstructing an identity and thus unveiling the inner self, this becomes even more interesting when the reconstruction of identity, becomes a reconstruction of gender. In this case it is an interplay of veiling and unveiling. On the other hand, a secondary form of unveiling can be described as that of the of facial features, an exaggeration of certain features like the eyes or the lips can be seen as a form of unveiling, if taking the Islamic understanding of veiling which is to hide or contain femininity and sexuality, the painted red lips for example becomes a form of (Islamic) unveiling, as red lips are symbolic embodiments of femininity and sexuality. Looking back at the portraits of the Algerian women, we find that the eyes, which are the only exposed part of the veiled faces, are heavily concealed (or revealed) with kohl. Therefore two paradoxical ideas emerge concerning makeup as a form of veiling, on the one hand the skin is masked through makeup and thus is veiled, simultaneously makeup becomes a form of unveiling through its capability for sexual provocation, and for allowing a form of unveiling of the ‘inner-self’. This complex form of veiling (or unveiling) is unlike the burka or hijab, which is very definitive in its role, whereby it is a way of containing the body, blocking it from vision and defining the boundaries between public and private space, or secular and sacred space. The contrast of the veiled woman wearing heavy makeup is interesting because

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scholars and individuals that believe tattoos to be forbidden base this notion on this hadith by Bukhari “ It was narrated that Abu Juhayfah said: ‘The prophet PBUH cursed the one who tattoos, and the one who has tattoos done.” “Oftentimes Berber tattoos were placed near body orifices (eyes, mouth, nose, naval, vagina) or surfaces believed to be vulnerable to the machination of evil.” http://www.vanishingtattoo.com/north_africa_tattoo_history.htm 15 http://www.vanishingtattoo.com/north_africa_tattoo_history.htm 16 Roland Barthes, Mythologies 14


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in a sense she is completely covered, but in another sense it can be seen as a contradicting messages of the celebration versus the containment of femininity. A conflict between the hiding of sexuality sensuality and the femininity of the female figure, and celebration of that. The act of placing makeup on the face is described as wearing makeup thus instantaneously implying that it is an entity, a fabric, and a layer that is laid upon the skin.17 In English one “wears makeup” as though it’s a garment and what significantly interesting is the way veiled women (generally speaking) only wear makeup on the exposed features of their faces, the eyes, this ultimately becomes a paradox. On the one hand it is a second veil, imbedded onto the skin; on the other hand it is an unveiling, a provocative suggestion. Thus it is an interplay of conflicting attributes. In another reading of makeup, its primary role is perhaps to hide the flaws of the skin, to highlight features, and to emphasize others. In this sense it becomes a form of veiling. A woman even says, “Let me put my face on” the distinction between the clear face and the face with make up and the identity of oneself. It is closely related. If a woman feels like she cannot be seen without her makeup on because ‘it is not her face’. There is a strong confrontation with the self, with the reflection of the face. Makeup is a tool that allows for altering oneself, altering ones features even ones gender, it is a distortion a veil that controls how one is perceived, the image that one wants to portray. Beyond the veiling of the skin, comes the veiling of the body, which is not only evident through the hijab but also through fashion. Historically mens fashion has been conservative, following a strict grammar of the suit, the jacket and the trousers, it had undergone minor changes. In contrast, women’s fashion has undergone many dramatic changes. The main reason for this is triggered by the perception of the female body, and the masculine need for rationalizing it and containing it. The dresses of the bourgeoisie women did not acknowledge or celebrate the female body. The body was despised and thus was distorted and deformed through various mechanisms, most notably the corset and the crinoline. The physical suffering endured by women is indicative to the loathing of the body. The body was subordinate to the façade erected through the dress, as the corset for instance was implemented as an improvement to the proportions of the female figure, according to Baudelaire it was an “effort to reform nature” 18 “[Women were] considered to be by nature insufficient, women come to depend on their facades for self-esteem and sexual appeal. The corset itself, an armature of bones and laces, becomes heavily charged with eroticism. Exteriorized eroticism seems to invite domination and possession. Caught in the inexorable cycle of transitory novelty, trapped by the denial of their bodies’ intrinsic value, women are the staunchest supporters of fashion. Their false self-image perpetuates their own plight.”19 From the inadequately proportionate figure of the female body, which is altered through corsets and dresses, to the complete eradication of the female body, through the burqa. The burqa completely veils the body from sight. What is known is that behind the veil is a woman, although one cannot be certain as one never sees behind the burqa. Nonetheless, the burqa is an example of the loathing of the female body, and the notion of the female figure as an ‘inadequate enclosure’as previously addressed. The body is therefore rendered invisible by the burqa, which is contained within it; the woman is stripped away from her natural femininity. The woman becomes an island- distinctly separating her body from the space of the city. Through the tiny eye orifice she is able to see into the city. And although the burqa is a porous due to its textile nature, it visually blocks and marks two distinct spaces, that of the body which is private and sacred to that of the city, which is public. Or perhaps, if the female body is regarded as the embodiment of sexuality, then perhaps it acts similarly to the curtain drawn by the prophet to separate a space of sexuality to the public secular space of the city. 17

The linguistics of makeup components for instance one starts with a Foundation the primary layer, we can even refer it to architectural foundation the very basis of construction of the face, of the identity of the mood of the woman today. Blusher –to blush, to be shy, it’s an effect that reflects an emotion. But in this sense the emotion is faked, reconstructed and painted onto the face. 18 Charles Baudelair, The Painter of Modern Life 19 Patrice Higonnet, Anne Higonnet and Margaret Higonnet, Critical Inquiry Vol. 10, No. 3 (Mar., 1984),: Walter Benjamin’s Paris p.406


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ARCHITECTURAL VEILS

The very spatial dimension of the veil can be parralled architecturally through the mashrabiya (wooden

window lattice) that although is implemented for environmental reasons, however, spatially perhaps the equivalent of the veil would be the Islamic window lattice structures (mashrabiyya) which follow the porosity of the veil, allowing for airflow and sound but blocking vision, the veil marks a clear territory, in a similar manner as the mashrabiyya. In fact even as a spatial experience, both the veil and the mashrabiyya behave in a similar manner. When inside the house and looking out, one is able to see. However, passing by from the outside, it becomes difficult to see into the interior of the house. Perhaps there is a relationship between architectural veiling and bodily veiling, the way people architecturally veil themselves within the homes, and the way in which they veil themselves in the streets. This may be apparent in the housing typologies of Iran. Rasht, for example, is a city in the north of Iran which is filled by vegetation and trees, which in a sense construct a level of privacy, the climatic conditions in this region is very different to the centre of Iran, thus the houses are designed in response to the local climatic conditions. The houses of Rasht follow the logic of private and public spaces that are found in Islamic architecture. The most private space is found in the center of the house, which is most concealed from vision, it is surrounded by a portico however, the flooring of which implies it belonging to the house however, it is semi-open to the landscape and streets around it. Thus the house follows a concentric level of privacy, the center being most private, the edge of the house integrates with the surrounding landscape there is no definitive line between inside and outside. Unlike in Kashan, however, where the courtyard house clearly distinguishes between the private and public realms, through the imperforated high walls, that surround the parameter of the house. Within the house however, we find a myriad of windows yet there is another institution of public and private spaces within the house. In these two cases, the way in which women veiled themselves in public is extremely different. The women of Rasht veiled in a loose manner, most of the body was covered wearing colorful veils and normal clothes. However, the women of Kashan, followed an orthodox form of veiling, whereby they wore a black abbaya and no parts of them can be seen except their hands and faces. This raises the notion of the relationship of dressing and perception or experience of space. Just like the veil the house can be regarded as a mechanism for controlling sexuality, bodily behavior, and establishing gender constraints. This is not only applicable to the renaissance houses but can also be applied to Persian courtyard houses, that both visually and spatially illustrate this gender division. Initially the courtyard house segregates public life from private life, through the windowless exterior walls, that draw heavily from the fortress typology. A clear parameter is established between public and private spaces, however, within the walls of the courtyard house there are varying degrees of public and private spaces, which are gender based. Such that there are women only areas, men only areas, communal areas, areas to open to guests and areas accessible only by the family. However, the internal architecture of the courtyard house contains numerous windows, making it ideal for surveillance, monitoring movements and the behavior of the people within it. This is a role that is taken by the woman during the absence of the man; in a sense the interior is a reconstruction of an exterior. This is becomes clearer through looking at Khaneh Tabatabaei-ha (the Tabatabaei house in Kashan, Iran) which is constructed through four courtyards each courtyard is gender specific. The interior of the of the Khaneh Tabatabaei-ha is made up of four courtyards and with numerous windows on the inside, this makes it ideal for internal surveillance, which is a role that the woman takes during the absence of the man. Thus the house becomes a reconstruction of an external city-like condition, particularly evident in Khaneh Tabatabaei-ha, which is consequential of its large scale. Thus during the absence of the man the women takes over the role of control, she holds the key to the house becoming the overseeing eye. Nonetheless she is still controlled through containing her within the house, through establishing set boundaries, which she can control. The implications of this is becoming a place of gender domination, the woman is given the power of internal surveillance during the absence of the


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Courtyard house in Kashan

Regional types of Veiling

House in Rasht

Regional types of Veiling Fi g . 5 : R e l at i ons h ip b e t w e e n for m of v e i l i ng w it h D om e s t i c Ty p o l o g y


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husband, as the husband leaves the “the surveillance of the exterior depends upon the surveillance of the interior. The wife assumes this burden of internal surveillance as the ‘overseeing eye’ monitoring the house, which is no more than a nested system of enclosed spaces, each with a lock, from its one locked front door down to the small locked chests at the foot of the beds, which contain the most valued possessions. As the ‘guardian of laws’ responsible for this elaborate system, she literally holds all the keys, guarding the house in the same way that her husband guards her.” 20

The gender power conflict usually is linked to a form of intellectual veiling, which can be found both western and eastern architecture. In Persian architecture, and in particular the case of Agha Bazorg Mosque in Kashan, Iran the building is divided vertically. The ground floor is public space and it is uses by both genders, it is a courtyard that leads into the mosque. The ground floor opens up on to the lower ground floor’s courtyard, the courtyard is surrounded by a series of rooms, which are used as madrasa’s (religious schools) that are reserved for men only. There is no visual veiling between these two spaces, which is often found in Islamic architecture, but it is a veiling of knowledge and intellect. Furthermore, we find that ‘knowledge’ is a communal activity that is done in public; it is about collective sharing of information, knowledge and initiating discussions. In Alberti’s Della Famiglia the notion of gender and power is manifested in the renaissance household through the architectural ‘rules’ he implements. For example the bedchambers were to be constructed so that each of the couple had their own private room. Thus in a sense the couple would be veiled from each other, this was to “to ensure that the husband be not disturbed by his wife, when she is about to give birth or is ill, but also allow them, even in summer, an uninterrupted night’s sleep.”21 However, this veil could be removed or broken at anytime, as there is a door between the two rooms, allowing them “to seek each other’s company unnoticed.” 22 Thus the couple would unveil themselves but were veiled from the rest of the household. What becomes apparent is the house really becomes a mechanism for reproduction and control. Beyond the husband’s bedroom lies the most veiled and private space, which is the study room that is inaccessible to anyone but himself. In fact, “the first truly private space was the man’s study, a small locked room off his bedroom which no one else ever enters, an intellectual space beyond that of sexuality.” 23 Furthermore, as the study is a space where all the family matters, secrets, finances were controlled and stored. The study was also a place for reading, and seeking knowledge. However, this room was completely veiled from his wife, thus in a sense the husbands thoughts were completely veiled from his wife. Which strongly mirrors the concept previously stated that man is the ‘head of the household’, which could even be interpreted literally. 24 Therefore we can see that control and intellect or knowledge is the core issues in which the female has been controlled. In Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll’s House, we find masculine and feminine struggle not only manifests itself in the marriage but also through the spatial distinction. The most masculine space within the house is Torvald’s study room, which his wife Nora cannot access and was only accessed by Dr. Rank (a male family friend). It is a ‘serious’ space where the affairs of the family and the house are determined and controlled. Throughout the play Nora never enters the study room or disturbs Torvald, the space of the study room was always veiled from her. And in fact it is clear that his thoughts were veiled to her as well, as he does not want “disturb your little mind with serious matters” Torvald saw himself as intellectually superior, which is demonstrated in the way he constantly refers to his wife as: “my little skylark” “my little 20

Mark Wigley, the housing of gender, Sexuality and space p. 339- 340 Leon Battista Alberti, On the Art of Building in Ten Books, trans. Joseph Rykwert, Neil Leach and Robert Tavernor (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT press, 1988), Book V, p.149 22 Leon Battista Alberti, On the Art of Building in Ten Books, trans. Joseph Rykwert, Neil Leach and Robert Tavernor (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT press, 1988), Book V, p.149 23 Mark Wigley, ‘Untitled: The Housing of Gender’ in Sexuality and Space ed. Beatriz Colomina p p. 347 24 “The husband and wife must have separate bedrooms, not only to ensure that the husband be not disturbed by his wife, when she is about to give birth or is ill, but also allow them, even in summer, an uninterrupted night’s sleep, whenever they wish. Each room should have its own door, and in addition a common side door, to enable them to seek each other’s company unnoticed.”24 Leon Battista Alberti, On the Art of Building in Ten Books, trans. Joseph Rykwert, Neil Leach and Robert Tavernor (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT press, 1988), Book V, p.149 21


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Fig.6: Gutting of Paris for the construction of boulevards


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squirrel” “my little singing bird” “my pretty little pet” “my little sweet-tooth” “my poor little Nora”. This highlights the masculine feminine struggle and the need for the imposition of control by one of the sexes. We can really understand the relationship between the wife and the husband in the description of the man as the head of the household, as man is the ‘head’ of the household established by controlling and directing the ‘body’ which is a woman” 25 furthermore, the head also implies the highest point and relates to the head as a mode of intellect. This feminine masculine struggle can also be read architecturally, through the construction of the house, which can be viewed as a gendered space. It is composed by feminine and masculine elements, the masculine elements being the structure, the mass the shelter; whereas the feminine elements are the decorations, the curtains, screens and ornamentation. The structure is superior to ornamentation, ornament is subordinate to structure and femininity is subordinate to masculinity. Thus the house is a dynamic interplay between masculine and feminine, which comes across through the architectural form of the house and through gendered spaces. the house becomes a mechanism to control femininity, through creating ritualistic behaviors within the house that are determined partially by the husband, the family and the house. The house becomes the place of work for the woman, who is given temporal authority or power over the house during the absence of the husband, and thus feeling empowered, although this power is de-valued as the man enters the house again. Modernity, however, brought about a sense of translucency, in the modern metropolis this transparency altered the way people behaved and perceived spaces. This is evident in the Parisian apartment, which underwent several internal transformations that relate to the changes in social structure. The first apartment building appeared in the eighteenth century, it followed the spatial logic of the ‘demeure noble’. The spatial configuration along the façade was as follows: the salon, anti-chambre, chambre. “in the nineteenth century the anti-chambre disappears and is replaced by a ‘cabinet’ where intimate friends are cozily entertained instead of in the larger and probably unheated salon. The salon soon yields to the dining room as the apartment’s principle space. The story ends, of course, with the social aggrandissement of the kitchen – and no servant’s bedrooms.” 26 Unlike the courtyard houses, the private spaces in the Parisian apartments overlooked the boulevards through the glass windows. In the Haussmannian apartments bedroom opened up on to the living room. the Parisian immeubles is an example of the domestic unveiling brought about by the modern metropolis. the façades of the immeubles created homogeneity, as all the façades followed the same Haussmannian order. Their repetition along the newly inserted boulevards emphasizes the perspective and exaggerates the length of the street. Privacy diminished in Paris from the mid 1800s. Haussmann destructively cut through the city’s homes and shops, whilst simultaneously, constructing boulevards in their place. These boulevards held unobstructed views of the city, ultimately eradicating private spaces within the metropolis. The apartments overlooking the boulevards allowed the residents to see and be seen by the passers by, the proximity between what is public and private was reduced. Ultimately a sense of translucency emerges upon the streets of Paris, whereby being within the enclosure does not mean privacy, but is exteriorization. The Haussmannization of Paris, through a tabula rasa effect, created a crisis, which according to Shelly Rice in Parisian Views,’” the French have still not recovered from” 27. As the boulevards not only ripped out parts of the city, but suspended time through the elimination of traces of the past and the construction of a completely new space, unrelated to the history of the site.

25 26 27

Mark Wigley, ‘Untitled: The Housing of Gender’ in Sexuality and Space ed. Beatriz Colomina p p. 339 John Summerson, review of : Paris XIX e Siecle: L’Immeuble et la rue. By François Loyer, AA Files, No. 17 (Spring 1989) P.107 Shelly Rice, Parisian Views


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F i g . 7 : P r o u s t ’s Ap a r t m e n t i n B o u l e v a r d H a u s s m a n n Redrawn by Author


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PROUST’S APARTMENT During a time of great urban unveiling in Paris, whereby the city was cut open by boulevards, gradually becoming more transparent. An apartment on Boulevard Haussmann was resisting these changes, and was the urban and domestic changes, through celebrating interiority. Apartment 102 on Boulevard Haussmann belonged to Marcel Proust, who resided there between 1906-1919. Proust cherished the interior, however he was not alone, during the dramatic changes in late 1800s Paris, the interior became a place where the citizen seeked refuge from the Whilst Haussmann’s apartments strived to minimize the privacy between the street it resisted the sense of public-ness that Haussmann’s intervention in Paris created and wanted to retain its privacy. Proust was extreme in his way of inhabitation of space, for him “life is what is lived on the inside” 28. Instead of emphasizing the boulevards, which is the manner in which the Parisian apartments functioned, Proust closed all the shutters and drew the curtains onto the street; the space of his apartment (his bedroom specifically) was shut from the public sight. Through this the eye was directed “back into the interior” 29. His room contained two mirrors one that was placed between two windows and the other was placed above the two double doors. The role of the mirror was to create depth within the interior. However, “the exterior they reveal… is a reflected interior. Mirrors draw the eye outward only to return the gaze inward in a closed circuit of vision. To the degree that its opaque surface participates in the erasure of externality while simultaneously providing the illusion of an outside world. The mirror would appear to offer Proust the perfect metaphor for the spatial and temporal dislocations” furthermore, the mirrors, for Proust, were a form of surveillance, and the ability to see into other spaces, he positioned them in such a way that his body was never reflected. What was reflected was the door leading to the back hallway, “offering him a second means of surveillance for monitoring one of the bedroom’s most private portals. When he looked at the… mirror between the bedroom doors, Proust saw a reflection of his uncle’s desk” 30 The absence of the body’s reflection in the mirror refrained it from being an object, being afraid of the mirrors ability of “capturing and immobilizing” 31 his image. For Jacques Lacan the reflection of the subject in the mirror as a production of an image, however, this image is different from the one of the individual, he “detaches the subjects position from ‘real space’ only to relocate it in another topography, that of ‘imaginary space’”.32 This image construction can be interpreted in correspondence with the veiled Muslim woman. Her reflection within the domestic enclosure is radically different from the one in public. Her hijab, which is a mask, constructs an image that is not individual but global, relating to the whole Islamic community (the umma). For Jacques Lacan, however, “the mask is understood as a kind of mirror.”33 Because the “rays which return on the mirror make us locate in an imaginary space the object which moreover is located somewhere in reality…I hope that you’ll consider too consciousness to occur each time… There's a surface such that it can produce what is called an image… All sorts of thing behave like mirrors. All that’s needed is that the conclusions be such that to one point of reality there should correspond an effect at another point, that a biunivocal correspondence occurs between two points in real space.” 34 The veil therefore acts as a mirror, and when the mirror of the veil is mirrored back there is a real paradigm- a confrontation of two non-places. The veil creates a space of otherness and displaces its subject creating an identity conflict within the individual. Simultaneously it is a construction of an interior a private exclusive space.

28

Diana Fuss, The Sense of an Interior, p.173 Diana Fuss, The Sense of an Interior, p.173 Diana Fuss, The Sense of an Interior, p.175 31 Diana Fuss, The Sense of an Interior, p.175 32 Jaques lacan, ego in freudes theory 33 Mark Wigley, ‘Untitled: The Housing of Gender’ in Sexuality and Space ed. Beatriz Colomina p p.384 34 Mark Wigley, ‘Untitled: The Housing of Gender’ in Sexuality and Space ed. Beatriz Colomina p p.384 29 30


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Through readdressing the courtyard houses and the renaissance households, in terms of the female inhabitation of that space, and the relationship of masking and mirrors. What becomes apparent through the form of inhabitation of the women is that she was a prop. She was constantly constructing and reconstructing the mask, on an architectural scale, a bodily scale and through her relationship with the husband. On the architectural scale, the female was dressing the raw nakedness of the architectural structure, ‘softening’ and domesticating the space, through a porous veil or mask, (curtains and screens). The space of the house was not her own property, in fact the woman really had no space of her own, she was altering the internal spaces of the house, but the exterior facades were masculine and projected the image of the house being a masculine object. The woman simultaneously was a property of the husband, a prop to fulfill his ideology and to give him a sense of fulfillness. Again, this notion of masking and construction of an image was instituted on a bodily scale through dressing. Fashion subjugated the female body and was constantly reshaping the geometry of the female body. Through dressing the female body is sexualized or masculin-ized, or eradicated. Furthermore, on an intimate scale the relationship between the couple, particularly evident in renaissance houses, there is a veil drawn between the couple based on intellect, a man would rarely talk to his wife on serious matters, regarding her as inferior. Another veil is drawn between the image of the family and the reality of the family- keeping up appearances. Thus the woman was ephemeral, her actions, her role her presence. Thus the role of the mask and the mirror reemerge as essential artifacts. The mask is essential, according to Luce Irigaray, it is through the confinement of the female to the decorative surface “so women have to remain an ‘infrastructure’ unrecognized as such by our society and our culture. The use, circulation of their sexualized bodies underwrite the organization and the reproduction of the [patriarchal] social order, in which they have never take part as ‘subjects’.”35 What becomes apparent is the absence of the female space. “ The maternal feminine remains the place separated for ‘her’ place, deprived of ‘his’ place. She is or becomes the place of the other who cannot separate himself from her.” 36 As the woman becomes the house of man, she does not have a house herself other than the one she constructs through her own decoration. Lacking of a place “it would be necessary for her to re-envelop herself with herself. By wearing another decorative layer” 37. Through the absence of her own space, the female seeks to own her own space; both the mask and the mirror create spaces that are temporal, transient and not confined. Looking at Marc Garanger’s photographs in retrospect embodies the state stripping away of privacy, a violent trespassing onto bodies. The only way these women resisted was through their angry gaze back to the camera, it was the only way they could resist, as not conforming would lead to an even more aggressive attack on the body- either rape or death. The underlying purpose of the Parisian boulevards was strongly political, the straight wide boulevards that replaced the narrow old streets of Paris created visibility that facilitated power. The boulevards were constructed to allow troops to navigate easily and to prevent large crowd gatherings in order to prevent another revolution. Thus urban planning, according to Foucault, was space in which the rationality of the state was manifested, policing the city became increasingly significant and the boulevard played a significant part in ordering the city and imposing control. The government control, and the lack of privacy in the modern metropolis poses the same question that Marc Garanger’s photographs posed, through the absence of privacy and thus through the absence of the veil of the individual in the metropolis, what does it mean to veil? Perhaps, in this context, the veiling can become a mode of resistance, it could be abstracted from the religious connotations through employing a new fashion, and that is adopted by both sexes in order to reconstruct privacy and sustain the body as the last trace of private space. To definitively mark a

35

Luce Irigaray, This Sex Which Is Not One, tras. Catherine porter (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1985) P.84“but in fact that ‘femininity’ is a role, an image, a value imposed upon women by male systems of representation. In this masquerade of femininity, the woman loses herself, and loses herself by playing on her femininity. The fact remains that this masquerade requires and effort on her part for which she is not compensated… so women have to remain an ‘infrastructure’ unrecognized as such by our society and our culture. The use, circulation of their sexualized bodies underwrite the organization and the reproduction of the social order, in which they have never take part as ‘subjects’.”35 36 Luce Irigaray, L’Ethique de la différance Sexuelle, p.18 cit. Elizabeth Grosz, Sexual Subversions, P.174 37 Mark Wigley, ‘Untitled: The Housing of Gender’ in Sexuality and Space ed. Beatriz Colomina p, P.387-8


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boundary of an individual's of private space. Thus in essence it is a reconstruction of an introverted condition. This raises the question within today’s modern metropolis the lack of privacy and the invasiveness of the state onto its citizens and the need of transparency that is not only present in an architectural form but through an institutional form. The need for this derives from the establishment of an ideal socioeconomic model. Which leads us to question the meaning of the veil. The notion of the hijab al amir, the veil of the prince becomes significant as it, perhaps a veil of the citizens need to be imposed as a form of resistance, against the transparency of the bodies and life of the individual to the state.


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BIBLIOGRAPHY Walter Benjamin, Critique of Violence Roland Barthes, Image Music Text, Fontana Press (1977) Roland Barthes, Mythologies, Vintage books London (2009) Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida Michel Foucault, The history of Sexuality V.2 Jacques Lacan, trans. Jacques Alain Miller, The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psycho-analysis Margret W. Ferguson, Rewriting the Renaissances University of Chicago Press (1 Sep 1986) Geoffrey Batchen, Photography Degree Zero: Reflections on Roland Barthes’s Camera Lucida, MIT Press (2009) Hurbert Damisch, The Origin of Perspective, The MIT Press (1994) Jacqus-alain Miller, The Four Fundamental concepts of Psycho-analysis, Penguin Books (1979) Mary Bergstein, Mirrors of Memory: Freud, Photography and the History of Art, Cornell University Press (2012) Sigmund Freud, psychoanalysis theory Fatima Mernissi, Beyond the veil: male-female dynamics in Muslim society, Saqi Books; 2nd Revised edition (Sep 1985) Fatima Mernissi, Forgotten Queens of Islam, Polity Press (1993) Edward W. Said, Orientalism, Penguin Books; 25th Anniversary Ed with 1995 Afterword Ed edition (2003) Malek Alloula, The Colonial Harem, University of Minnesota Press (2008) Leila Ahmed, Quiet Revolution: The Veil’s Resurgence from the Middle East to America, Yale University Press (10 May 2011) Lalla Essaydi essays by Fatima Mernissi, Les Femmes du Maroc, power House Books (October 16, 2009) David A. Baily, Veil: Veiling, Representation, and Contemporary Art, The MIT Press (April 8, 2003) Marina Abramovic, Shirin Neshat, Rizzoli; First edition (April 20, 2010) Ibn Mandhur; Amir Ahmad Haydar, Abdul Mun'im Ibrahim, Lisan Al Arab (The Language of the Arabs) Edward William Lanes, Arabic-English Lexicon Eliade, Mircea; The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion (1959) David P. Jordan, Transforming Paris: The Life and Labors of Baron Haussmann, University of Chicago Press; University of Chicago Press Ed edition (11 July 1996) Le Corbusier, The Radiant City, Faber and Faber; First English Edition edition (Mar 1967) David Harvey, Paris, Capital of Modernity, Routledge; New Ed edition (November 5, 2005) Anthony Sutcliffe, Paris: An Architectural History, Yale University Press (1993) Walter Benjamin, The Aracades Project, Harvard University Press (1999) Johann Friedrich Geist, Arcades: The History of a Building Type, the MIT Press (1985) Philippe Aries & Georges Duby, A History of Private Life: Riddles of Identity in Modern Times, Harvard University Press (1991) A History of Private Life Beatriz Colomina, ed.,Sexuality and space, Princton University Press


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Len Battista Alberti, Della Famigilla Fatima Mernissi, The veil and the male elite: A feminist interpretation of womens rights in Islam, Perseus Books; Reprint edition (30 Nov 1992) Margot Badran, Feminism in Islam: Secular and Religious Convergences, Oneworld Publications; Original edition (1 Feb 2009) Dancing Fear and Desire: Race, Sexuality, and Imperial Politics in Middle ... By Stavros Stavrou Karayanni JOURNALS The Irony of Signs Veil: Veiling, Representation and Contemporary Art by David A. Bailey; Gilane Tawadros Review by: Sarah Rogers Art Journal, Vol. 63, No. 3 (Autumn, 2004), pp. 108-110 Published by: College Art Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4134495 . Accessed: 29/10/2012 10:57 Reframing the Colonial Gaze: Photography, Ownership, and Feminist Resistance Author(s): Karina Eileraas Reviewed work(s): Source: MLN, Vol. 118, No. 4, French Issue (Sep., 2003), pp. 807-840 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3251988 . Accessed: 29/10/2012 10:56 Veiled Threats: Malek Alloula's Colonial Harem Author(s): Laura Rice-Sayre Reviewed work(s): Source: boundary 2, Vol. 15, No. 1/2 (Autumn, 1986 - Winter, 1987), pp. 351-363 Published by: Duke University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/303443 . Accessed: 10/10/2012 16:19 Jasmin Zine, Muslim Women and the Politics of Representation http://www.vanishingtattoo.com/north_africa_tattoo_history.htm FILMS

Shirin Neshat, Women without Men (2009) Jean-Luc Goddard, Masculin Feminin (1966) Terror’s Advocate (2007) Battle of Algiers

Interview with Marc Garanger - New York Photo Festival 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award http://vimeo.com/11764560 http://vimeo.com/38356019 Marc Garanger, photo resistant from Le Mag DarQroom 7 months ago / Creative Commons License: by sa http://www.foto8.com/new/online/blog/1197-marc-garanger-and-nyph10


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