Muneera Al-Kaltham, a budding female painter from Saudi Arabia, has brought her work to the United States. She plans to highlight the women’s human rights situation in Saudi Arabia through her work. Titled “Feminizing colors: Modern Interpretations of a Woman’s Role in Society,” her artwork speaks in bold colors and an impressionist style.
Her name, Muneera, means ray of the light in Arabic, which is exactly what she hopes to shed on the women’s rights issues in Saudi Arabia. “The exhibit is about the women, and it reflects my belief that women and men deserve the same human rights,” she explained.
She believes that this exhibit could have a positive effect on how her culture treats and sees women. While she admits some changes are happening, her hope is that the art will speak to people in a way that hastens changes for the better.
In many of her paintings, the eyes of the depicted women catch one’s eyes and heart. Often filled with sadness and despair, their eyes underscore the plight of living in a male- dominated society—one where a woman can be murdered for just talking with a man in public. Such an occurrence happened recently when two young women, Reem, 21, and Nouf, 19, were shot to death by their brother with full support from their father.
Saudi Arabia is a country where violence against women has been an ongoing problem. Saudi Arabia’s Islamic sharia legal code does not allow unrelated men and women to mix together, and the religious police actively enforce the rules by patrolling areas frequented by young people. This is just one of the many laws that make women the brunt of brutal treatment.
Several dignitaries attended opening night of Al-Kaltham’s exhibit, including U.N. Ambassador to Israel Gabriela Shalev and Mr. Mohamed Fathi Edrees, U.N. deputy representative to Egypt.
The exhibit is from Aug. 11–29 at Gelabert’s Studio Gallery in Manhattan.
For more information on Gelabert Studios, please call 212-874-7188 or go to GelabertStudiosGallery.com. For more information on the artist see: Muneera-alkaltham.com.
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