Western audiences viewing Essaydi’s photographs of (sometimes) veiled Muslim women will likely bring with them preconceived notions of the veil and what it means to their interpretation of the works. Essaydi, educated in both France and the United States, is no doubt highly aware of the Western gaze, both its history in Orientalist works as demonstrated by her reuse of classic Orientalist images, and the current trends in Western thoughts regarding Islam and the veil. But she is also a Muslim woman born to an Arab family, operating in both the Western world and the world of her birth, and is such, is also aware that the Western view and Western audience is not the only interpretation available. It is important for the viewer to bring both the negative stereotype of the veil, and to step away from it as well.
While the veil can be read as a symbol of repression, a wiping away of women’s identities, it can also be read as having given back to the women their sense of modesty and a sense of themselves as Muslim women. The use of multiple veiled figures can imply a sense of community with other women, a natural progression within a cultural from unveiled to veiled, and a sense of a certain historical accuracy that is missing in the clichéd Haram paintings made by Western Orientalists where the veil often shows more than it covers.
The veil has become a potent, laden symbol that tries to encapsulate too many meanings; a sign of repression and of revolution; of self-identity and lack of identity; one who’s wearer is both passive and active; and a single symbol of both a religion and a people while simultaneously representing a huge amount of cultural diversity, types, and styles, and forms. Depictions of and thoughts about the veil are still colored by the Orientalist tradition in art, as well as the constructed identity of the “Orient” that this school of belief is responsible for. Stereotypical and often negative views of the veil are often reinforced by the news and popular culture. Contemporary artists attempt to bring to light these assumptions, as well as show both the broader and specific views of the veil in all of its meanings and associations, and more importantly to uncover, while not necessarily uncovering, the women who wear it.