More and Even More on Censorship

• What is happening to Shurooq, a Kuwaiti, also happened to me and I wrote a book about this journey

  
  

  
  

  Shurooq Amin

  Dear art supporters: I was invited to MBC Beirut to appear on the program Kalam Nawaen to speak about my journey, about the closure of my show, about censorship & about freedom of expression. Yesterday MBC Kuwait came to my studio and filmed for 3 hours. After I land in Beirut, I'm shocked to be told that MBC was ordered to cancel my appearance & ban me from speaking about this on TV! They received a call from the Ministry of Information in Kuwait ordering them to ban me from speaking! Since when is MBC controlled by Kuwait? Since when is MBC against freedom of expression? Who is afraid of my art and why? It's not political; it's not religious: it's just art! What's going on here?

Slide Show/Book Signing Friday the 13th

Port Angeles Fine Arts Center

For immediate release

Enter Stage Left series runs 4 Friday nights beginning April 13

On April 13 the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center begins its fourth annual Enter Stage Left series, which every spring accompanies the annual Strait Art exhibition of north Peninsula artists. Set against the backdrop of this lively and diverse exhibition of 29 visual artists the series presents programs of readings, lectures, music and theater also from local talent.

All programs begin at 7 pm. Admission is by donation at the door and benefits the programs of the Fine Arts Center.

April 13 • Program 1 vYvonne Wakefield: Suitcase Filled with Nails

Port Townsend artist and arts educator Yvonne Wakefield presents a slide lecture and reading from Suitcase Filled with Nails, the recently published book chronicling her experiences in Kuwait. Leaving a secure career and home life in the Pacific Northwest Wakefield immersed herself in the climate, landscape and culture of this small desert state.

For six years she taught art to university aged Muslim women, and learned to “negotiate tribal and misogynistic land mines set by detractors who are threatened by anyone, especially a spirited American woman, who encourages freedom of expression.”

Suitcase Filled with Nails transcends prevalent Middle East stereotypes and is filled with insights on working, living, and coping in a culture that is in many ways the total opposite of what she had known before.

Four of Wakefield’s paintings drawn from that experience are included in Strait Art. Wakefield holds a doctorate in Human Organizational Systems and has been widely recognized for her art education methodology. She has taught art on three continents to a wide range of ages and abilities. Her own art and articles on art have been exhibited and published internationally.  She divides her time between Port Townsend and the Tieton arts community in Eastern Washington.

More on Censorship

If it could happen to a Kuwaiti, it would have happened to me...this is why I chose never to exhibit the Women in Abaya paintings while in Kuwait.


The Daily Star


KUWAIT: A Kuwaiti artist whose pictures of men were deemed "obscene" by authorities said she would keep on producing art that challenged perceptions of society in the Gulf Arab state after her exhibition was shut down.
Officials sent by the government told the gallery showing Shurooq Amin's work to close her "It's a Man's World" exhibition last month, three hours after it opened, the artist said.
The works were "indecent" and "obscene", a notice from the Commerce Ministry, seen by Reuters, said. Officials from the ministry - which issues licences for art galleries to operate - declined repeated requests to comment.
Amin said officials focused on two of her 16 works - a painting of a woman in a mini-dress sitting on a man's lap entitled "My Mistress and Family" and a picture showing three men playing cards and drinking "grape juice" from a bottle which suggested contraband alcohol.
An Interior Ministry spokesman also declined to comment.
"I am going to continue to paint and I am going to continue to push the envelope. If anything, this is making me more determined than ever and more stubborn than ever," Amin told Reuters.
She has held nine solo exhibitions in Kuwait, including one called "Society Girls" in 2010 about the role of women in society, which she said sparked debate but was not banned.
Although Kuwaitis enjoy greater freedom of expression than citizens in more conservative Gulf countries and have access to a comparatively lively and outspoken domestic press, the state can censor publications and films it deems morally offensive.
Amin and other members of the artistic community said that this was the first time that they had heard of an exhibition being closed down. The Al M. Gallery declined to comment but a notice on its website showed the exhibition was "suspended."
Works seen to be insulting to Islam, the emir, or calling for the overthrow of the leadership are prohibited in Kuwait where pornography and alcohol are banned and adultery is punishable by law.
Opposition Islamists made gains in a snap parliamentary election in February and liberal commentators have voiced concern that political change in Kuwait could lead to restrictions on freedom of expression and public life.
A small group of hard-line Islamist parliamentarians said last month they wanted to propose a law banning flirtatious behaviour and "indecent attire" in public, which would include swimsuits on beaches, according to Kuwaiti media.


Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Culture/Art/2012/Apr-03/169039-kuwaiti-artist-more-determined-after-exhibition-ban.ashx#ixzz1r1QGN6JW
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)