Womb Power: Meet The Arab Artists Exploring Motherhood And Femininity Through Their Oeuvre

Sarah Mohanna Al Abdali, Nouf Alhimiary, Fatima Dia and Leily Mojdehi on making waves in the Middle-Eastern art scene

Sarah Mohanna Al Abdali

My art is a mirror of my journey through life as a woman,” says Saudi Arabian artist Sarah Mohanna Al Abdali who spent her earliest life in the city of Jeddah being inspired by the women around her. Growing up, Sarah had a keen eye for art and she was always copying the illustrations she found in her favourite books and tracing her favourite cartoon characters. Fast forward to 2011 and the graffiti pieces she created around the coastal city went viral, both locally and internationally. Sarah used graffiti to send a message about the urban transformation she was seeing around her. And today, her medium of expression has earned her recognition as one of her country’s first street artists.

Having spent her creative life spotlighting important themes like femininity and womanhood, with a particular focus on the experiences of strong Hejazi women like herself, Sarah’s connection to her work has recently evolved into a new phase since she became a mother in 2020. “When it comes down to motherhood and art, we are subconsciously taught that it is either this or that. And as there is no right way on how one can uniquely be themselves, there’s also no right way of how a woman pursues art,” she posted on Instagram last year.

“Becoming an artist mother, the time I get to spend in my studio is so limited which allowed me to experiment with new mediums and processes that take less time and layers, and has introduced me to a new artist in me.” Sarah also wants her work to move past being categorised as Islamic as she thinks this designation boxes her in. “I don’t call myself an Islamic artist, I often question the term Islamic art because people sometimes give that form of art a label just to understand and categorise it,” she explains.

For Sarah, Islamic art is much more than something that needs to be labelled. It embodies deep philosophies that are nuanced and ancient. But it is her role as a mother that seems to have made the biggest impact on the way she not only creates but also how she perceives her creations. “Motherhood is the encompassing force to love and give unconditionally,” she shares. “It’s the most drastic change a woman can experience physically and emotionally, as her existence will multiply from that moment onwards.”

Nouf Alhimiary

For Nouf Alhimiary, “motherhood is a sacred experience of life, a reclamation of pride, a budding metamorphosis.” To this Saudi Arabian native, art is a pathway that connects her with the experiences of her immigrant mother and her grandmother. She also finds solace in art as a way to feel more rooted in her ancestry – Nouf’s mother left Sudan when she was a little girl, alongside her grandmother, in search of a better life. But Nouf isn’t just invested in the past. She tells Harper’s Bazaar Arabia that “my art is an exploration of my own connection to my mother as well as my dreams and fantasies about motherhood.” Her oeuvre is also shaped by her own experience growing up as the daughter of a Saudi Arabian man and a Sudanese woman in Jeddah.

“As a child, I had a very strong relationship with expression. I was so sensitive,” she reflects, thinking back to her beginnings as an artist. And it was the work of British artist Tracey Emin and South African painter Marlene Dumas that inspired Nouf to start her own creative journey. “I loved the simplicity of their works, it was so poetic and came from a very feminine place,” she recalls. With a keen interest in femininity and the digital space, Nouf uses mixed-media art techniques – photography and video – to illustrate the mysticism and cyborgian aspects of femalehood. She has shown her own multimedia pieces and installations around the world, having exhibited in the United States, Italy and the United Kingdom, as well as in the Middle East.

Fatima Dia

“Successful artists don’t just make you see through their art, they make you feel through it,” is the first thing Fatima Dia has to say when we begin to chat. The Lebanese artist has spent her career producing work by channeling her deepest emotions, translating them onto blank white canvas for the world to see. Fatima’s pieces have an eloquence to them – they read like a visual poem. But her art is also a composition of satirical nuances that she reveals is a way for her to communicate constructive social criticism. She uses humour as a conduit for understanding, and perhaps change. “I always draw attention to economic and political issues using irony or sarcasm to criticise issues we suffer in our countries.”

As an creative living in a country where women’s rights aren’t fully actualised, the path to self expression has been difficult for Fatima. But it is this same challenging environment that has motivated her to use her platform to illustrate the stories of Lebanese women. An adept observer, Fatima is underwhelmed at the progress women – and particularly mothers – have made in her Arab community. To her, they are seen as second-class citizens, with mothers still having to fight for equality both politically and economically, but also in more concrete ways, like when it comes to having custody of their children. She craves change. Putting it simply: “As a woman artist I have the responsibility to shed light on these problems and help both women and mothers in their struggles.

Leily Mojdehi

Leily Mojdehi’s pieces are unusually exuberant – she loves working in the mixed-media space and has forayed into embroidery, painting and collage layering techniques to get her message across. “My art is a feast for the eye, a colourful composition,” she says with pride. The daughter of a British mother and an Iranian father, Leily grew up in a home she calls an “art piece” – a haven where imaginative decorations and work that represented her rich cultural background inspired her creative calling into the world of artistic expression.

Even though she didn’t initially aspire to venture into the creative realm, as a child she did dream of being her own boss. It’s an idea that was supported by two powerful female role models in her life – her grandmother who taught her the art of embroidery and her mother who framed her first artwork. It’s this foundational support that is reflected in what she creates, which captures concepts of motherhood as a way to honour the women who nurtured her. But that’s not the only story Leily tells. She’s also keen to depict concepts that focus on femininity that align with her transcultural identity as a British and Iranian woman. Her goal? “I want women to comfortably exist in my art,” she says.

Photography: Abdullah Al Shihri, Nouf Almugairin. Images supplied.

From Harper’s Bazaar Arabia’s July-August 2022 issue.