This Stunning Photo Exhibit Shows Life From the Eyes of Arab and Iranian Women

The status of women in Arab and other Middle Eastern societies and the stories of the horrors women have to face daily have been oft debated and sensationalized by media across the globe, and middle eastern women have been rendered as helpless and horribly oppressed because of these headlines.

In the photo exhibit, She Who Tells a Story, for the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington DC, 12 photographers challenge these stereotypes surrounding the lifestyles of women in Arab and Iran.

The title of the exhibition is from the arabic word 'rawiya', which literally translates to 'she who tells a story' and is an attempt to highlight that these photos are a story of women told by women.

Kristin Gresh, the curator who had organized this exhibition in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, spoke to Hello Giggles about the backlash the exhibition, and what it stands for, faced. 

"One prominent Iranian artist warned me that focusing on a group of women photographers was 'alarming' because it would confirm the stereotype of Arab and Iranian women as 'oppressed and powerless,'​" 

But the exhibition contests the very idea of oppression and stereotypes by portraying Arabic and Iranian women in their natural lifestyles in the most authentic way possible.

You can learn more about the exhibit right here.