- In what does the author offer insights and challenges into contemporary religious and cultural practices?
- To what extent does the impact of the text shape our implicit perception of a troubling world?
A photograph by Yumna Al Arashi
Yumna Al Arashi’s art and Kamila Shamsie’s novel “Home Fire” presents unique viewpoints on the representation of Muslim people. Both photographer and an author share a Muslim background, so it is quite interesting to listen to their perspectives.
The idea of troubling worlds is noticeable in the texts and it’s approached in a way, that fosters further thinking.
Starting off with Home Fire, it should be noted that Kamila Shamsie based the novel on Sophocles’s play Antigone. The concepts and ideas behind the main characters are almost identical. Both play and a novel gives an insight into the life of a family that loses its members. Families in both Antigone and Home Fire have to encounter severe and undeniably hard pressure from the society. By presenting the ideas behind Antigone in a new environment, Shamsie is able to show how contemporary and deep-seated the issue of discrimination is. Along with that, Karamat Lone (a powerful state official) is unable to understand the situation or show any empathy, despite his Muslim background and that signifies the lack of connection between Muslims and the rest of society.
Yumna Al Arashi’s art has some ideas that resonate with Kamila Shamsie’s viewpoint. Al Arashi’s art presents Muslim women as confident and independent. This show the consciousness of choice that Muslim women wearing hijab have. Her vision of beauty may contradict with the Western ideas since, in her mind, the beauty doesn’t require body exposure. The model in her photo series called “Northern Yemen” shows her beauty through the poses, confidence and mystery in the look that she gives.
Concepts and ideas embedded give food for thought about the reality of Muslim people’s lives and challenge thinking.