ABSTRACT
Palestinian artist, Hannan Abu-Hussein, is described by Tal Dekel as the very first artist in Israel to systematically create representations of female genitals that refer to what ultimately became known as the #MeToo movement. While Judy Chicago and other American feminists deployed vaginal imagery to celebrate female power and women's capacities for sexual pleasure, Abu-Hussein instead represents the vagina as a site of trauma. Commenting on practices such as virginity testing, female circumcision and rape, Abu-Hussein's Vagina Series also alludes to – and speaks out against – the ways in which sexual violence goes unspoken in communities where women experience various layers of oppression. As Dekel reveals, Abu-Hussein's works speak powerfully to and about women who are victims of not only gender prejudice within their own communities but also unfair discrimination from the Israeli ethno-national state – a situation complicated still further through the lack of separation of the state and religion in Israeli law, which in effect means they are subject to decisions and regulations on the part of Sharia courts.
