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1 Changing FocusHow do cultural producers view women’s rolesand what do they intend to project when theyshare their creations with the public? TheChanging Focus Photography Competition, acommunications project of the Middle East Hubof the Pathways of Women’s EmpowermentResearch Programme Consortium, addressesthese very questions. As a collaborative networkof research centres in the global South, Pathwaysresearchers work together on specific themes toinvestigate notions of women’s empowerment. Inaddition to innovative research, Pathwaysfocused heavily on utilising alternative andparticipatory communications strategies.Changing Focus invited Egyptian photographersto engage with each other and share theirdepictions of how women navigate the worldaround themselves. How do Egyptianphotographers conceptualise women’sempowerment? How do they connect their ownideas about empowerment with their images?John Tagg suggests that a photograph provides a‘politically mobilised rhetoric of truth’ throughwhich photographers can frame social situationsin a variety of ways (Knowles and Sweetman2004). This project sought to understand howphotographers frame and communicate theirideas about women’s agency through their artand representations.

2 Structure of Changing FocusWhile certain stereotypes of Middle Easternwomen remain embedded in Western views (Nusair2009), the participation of women in the ongoingEgyptian Revolution provides numerous narrativesthat subvert such stereotypes. This is not to saythat it was solely a revolutionary spark that fuelleddifferent representations. Prior to the uprising,regional women’s organisations experimented withdifferent media channels to disseminate researchand publicise their messages as a move awayfrom these stale representations (Skalli 2006 inNusair 2009). Skalli has discussed the need forwomen to be more creative and strategic as theycraft their representations. Changing Focus wasenvisioned as a space to do just that – to createand reflect upon their representations of womenthrough photography. As a communicationsmedium, photographs contain their own texture,providing detail and capturing dimensions thatmay be hard to describe solely through thewritten or spoken word (Rose 2007).

In early 2010, photographers were invited tosubmit a brief application (contact details andinformation about how long they have beentaking photos as well as their engagement withany other arts activities) and three photographsaccompanied by a short description/discussion(300–500 words) of them.

Changing Focus: Exploring Images of Women and Empowerment inEgypt

Kristina Hallez

Abstract In moving away from prescriptive one-way communications exercises, participatory development

communications use better strategies to engage communities and capture nuance. This article examines a

communications case study in Egypt: a photography competition aimed at understanding how local

photographers depict women and empowerment in their images. Opportunities for discussion and self-

reflection provide cultural producers the space to delve into how they see women and how they then

choose to represent them. This type of communications initiative actively courts a richer understanding of

empowerment, leaving room for the complexities this might entail.

IDS Bulletin Volume 43 Number 5 September 2012 © 2012 The Author. IDS Bulletin © 2012 Institute of Development Studies

Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA

IDS Bulletin Volume 43 Number 5 September 2012 105

The application process was open to Egyptiannationals and foreigners who have lived in Egyptand are engaged with the context. The applicationand posters were written and distributed in Arabicand English and submissions in either languagewere accepted. We acknowledge that thecompetition framework comes with certainlimitations. The expectation that applicantsprovide their own photography equipment createdsocioeconomic barriers to entry. Equipment isexpensive (albeit to varying degrees and therewere no requirements as to what kind of cameraparticipants should use) and with thisexpectation, we had to acknowledge that thisprocess would be exclusionary for those who couldnot afford such costs. This issue marks a tensionin the creation of cultural material in general. Shewho has the financial capacity then has a greaterability to create and distribute artistic goods, thusa further reach and further power to push her ownconceptions and depictions.

A panel of three judges working within Pathwaysassessed applicants using the following rubric:

Artistic merit – Aesthetic quality of thephotographs (scale of 1–10);Conceptualisation of gender empowerment –How well the applicant was able to portray orconvey their interpretation of women’sempowerment in their photos (scale of 1–10);Understanding gender empowerment – Howwell the applicant was able to discuss themeaning and intent behind their photos intheir application (scale of 1–15).

Selected applicants were invited to attend a one-day workshop with an artist facilitator to discussgender and representations of women as well astheir photos and what they conveyed. We were

fortunate to secure the help of Huda Lutfi, whois both a cultural historian and artist (Mehrez2008). She continually visits themes of gender,history and representation through her artwork,exploring how masculinity and femininity areconstructed in the Egyptian context. Followingthe workshop, the photographers then submittednew photos and a brief description of a dreamphotography project involving women. A winnerwas chosen based on the same rubric above andgiven prize money that could be used towardtheir suggested photography project.

3 Methodological underpinningsChanging Focus is concerned with the space tocreate and discuss representations of women andempowerment. It is foremost a participatorycommunications initiative, using a feminist lensto embrace intersections of research,representation and art. Increased women’sparticipation and agency will not come throughchanging laws and policies alone. Thetransformative process should also addresssocietal representations of women, encouragingand publicising images that delve into theeveryday realities of women.

4 Development communicationsCommunications work has become as an integraland participatory part of the development process,marking a shift that has occurred over the last fewdecades. Development communications used toprimarily encompass the transmission ofinformation, ‘not meant to communicate, just toinform, conform and deform’, in efforts to achieveeconomic or political gain and prop up local elites,governments and multinational corporations(Gumucio-Dagron 2008: 70). Participatoryapproaches were taken up to fostermultidirectional communication, to encourage acollective goal rather than a predeterminedendpoint and results. Communications work canserve as a reflection from the community back onthe processes being carried out in the community,an opportunity for skills-training and capacity-building, and even as a therapeutic and emotiveoutlet. A primary concern is to understand themotives for participation and why people do or donot engage in development projects.Communications initiatives can be mechanismsthrough which beneficiaries and participantsshare their views and discuss successes,shortcomings and general reactions todevelopment projects. Changing Focus embraces

Photo by Ahmed Rady, Changing Focus participant

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this framework, looking to participatingphotographers as researchers working toconceptualise gender empowerment.

5 Communication and women’s empowermentThe Changing Focus Photography Competitionproject is a communications venture that aims toshare representations of women and, in doing so,works to spread and support Pathways’ messagesthat emphasise the different experiences ofwomen. Jan Servaes describes a developmentparadigm (‘Multiplicity in One World’) thatacknowledges there is no universal path todevelopment, but rather pathways that vary fromone community to the next as ‘integral,multidimensional, and dialectic process’ (1996:83). This paradigm seems apt in conceptualisingwhat constitutes empowerment in women’s lives.There is no singular universal way to fosterempowering circumstances. Linkingrepresentation, feminism and the field ofcommunication, Keya Ganguly stresses thatfeminist critique should acknowledge ‘thefractured representation of fractured identities’(1992: 61). Communications initiatives shouldstrive to bring varying realities to the fore. Sheargues that the diversity within feministpractices lends itself to a multitude ofapproaches and feminist research mustcontinually involve self-reflection. ChangingFocus was intended to provide time, space andprompts for this kind of deconstruction. Thephotographers brought forward their images,wrote about them, and discussed them. Theresulting images are their conceptions ofempowerment, with all the complexities andnuances that they imbued.

It was also crucial that the project address localstakeholders, here photographers, who have

their own insights and ideas about how they seesociety functioning around them. Theparticipatory approach suggests that,‘Participants are more capable because it is theirimmediate context, a perspective quite differentfrom the abstract concepts, hypotheticalscenarios and standardized strategies whichoccupy the minds and consume the budgets of“experts”’ (Arnst 1996: 112).

6 Visual methodology, representation and artCaroline Knowles and Paul Sweetman describehow visual techniques and methods areparticularly useful in ‘Allowing us to understandhow the smallest units of social analysis – people,lives, the minutiae of material culture – operatein relation to broader social landscapes andbigger processes, visual strategies offer a wayinto understanding how the personal is socialand the social personal’ (2004: 8). Images havethe ability to bring us more information and apotentially larger sense of social and spatialrelationships on many different levels. As digitalphotographic tools have become more accessible,photos can be an excellent communications tool.The 1920s saw a rise in the depictions of womenas demonstrators and activists, showing thecontribution of women to the creation of thenation (Baron 2005). Al-Ali comments on howdifferent aspects of nationalism encompassdifferent depictions of women, among them theportrayal of women as citizens with obligationsand entitlements from the State and of womenas the guardians or symbols of cultural normsand values (2000).

Knowles and Sweetman discuss the limitationsand benefits of visual methodologies, pointingout concerns around misrepresentation andmanipulation of images to display certain

Two photos by Heba Khalifa, Changing Focus participant

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messages. Changing Focus acknowledges theseparadigms and thus asked participantphotographers to discuss their images and whatthey wanted to convey. This process does not ruleout other interpretations but allows thephotographers to explain their representationsof women so audiences have access to their pointof view.

There is a space for understanding how artisticcommunications projects function in thecommunities that host them. In the mid 2000s,compared to research available on more formalpolitical spheres in the Middle East, there was atangible dearth of information about alternativemedia in social activism (Williams 2004). Sincethen, increased access to/usage and the EgyptianUprising has generated massive interest in theuse of activist social media (Eltantawy and Weist2011). The Revolution has been accompanied bya boom in public artistic production (Lindsey2012; Pahwa and Winegar 2012). Once-rarepolitical graffiti has become commonplacethroughout Cairo and other Egyptian cities.Artists, playwrights, activists and enthusiasticcitizens have created multiple events like Al-Fann Midan [Art is a Square] to commemorateand reflect upon change in Egypt. Some groups,like the media collective Mosireen [Those whoInsist] and Askar Kazeboon [Military Liars], usepublic film footage screenings to spark dialoguewith fellow citizens about social justice and thefailings of the government and military.

Changing Focus allows us to see the images ofEgyptian photographers just before theRevolution began, an insight into theirrepresentations of women before the currenttransitional period.

7 The photographersPhoto journalist Heba Khalifa captured a womanriding a bicycle, generally considered a mode oftransportation only suitable for men. Khalifadiscusses the transformative power of thiswoman on her bike actively rejecting acceptednorms about how women are supposed to behave.Another photo submitted by Khalifa depicts afemale artist working on a model replicating aneighbourhood in downtown Cairo. The replica ispart of a collaborative art project entitled ‘ModelCitizens’ in which neighbourhood members wereinterviewed before and after the modelconstruction and asked what they would like tochange about their neighbourhood. Any changesthey suggested were then incorporated into themodel, allowing residents to visualise theirsuggestions (http://wouterelke.nl/cairo/ accessed19 June 2012). Khalifa describes the powerfulvisual contrast between the tiny city and theartist looming large like a giant. She notes theartist’s role as a creator, in total control of thereality beneath her. Khalifa goes on to discusshow the women in her photos manage to escapeor rise above the crowds and noise of the city andits pressures. She sees them gaining strengthand energy from these personal activities.

Three photos by Marwa Adel, Changing Focus participant

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Photographer Ahmed Rady also turns an eye tothe ways women take up transgressiveopportunities. One of his images, entitled ‘Right toExpress Yourself ’ depicts a lone woman watching afootball match, surrounded by men. Rady explainsthat ‘Socially constructed roles too often frustratethe potential of girls and women… Empowermentand change in women’s lives happen when theydevelop and cultivate their own interests andpassions regardless of social conventions’. He seesthis woman finding a way to enter a typically male-dominated space and enjoy the match witheveryone else.

Marwa Adel focused her images more directly onthe female body, playing with high contrast andposed forms. Her photos, which have beendigitally manipulated, bring forward symbols ofsilencing and constrained turmoil. In herapplication, she noted that her submissionreflected three stages in her own life: ‘Feeling aprisoner of traditions’, ‘confrontation andresistance’, and ‘serenity’ after having ‘decidedto be who I am without concern for therestrictions set by others’. Her visual reflectionon her own journey allows the viewer to see thephotographer–researcher symbolically turningthe lens on herself. Adel uses her photography toreflect on what empowerment means in her lifeand as a mode of explanation to the world.

Marwa Abdel Fattah’s image of a woman whoseface is obscured by a fingerprint generated quitea bit of discussion at the workshop. Abdel Fattahdescribed the photo as a reflection of how oftenfemale identity is erased because life centresaround men. In this context, she believes women

often forget that they too have a right to theirown existence. Some workshop participants feltthat the fingerprint signified a unique identityand was a symbol of civic power (a signature).Others felt the opposite, citing that the removalof the woman’s facial features and replacementwith an unidentified swirl implied confusion andfemale conformity.

Photographer Karina Shalaby focused on therelationship between women and the naturalworld as a source of empowerment. Shedescribed the outdoors as a freeing space, wherewomen can escape male pressure and exist as‘active agents… in a dynamic connection withthe forces of nature’.

8 Re-focusThe photographer responses to the ChangingFocus process suggest that a participatorycommunications approach can provide a livelyforum for discussion and creation. Theopportunity for artists to share their thoughtsthrough image, text and word brought forth avariety of images and interpretations aboutgender and empowerment. As cultural producers,these photographers occupy a creative andtransformative space. Their different narrativesabout women’s lives bring us deeper intoGanguly’s ‘fractured representation of fracturedidentities’ (1992). H. Leslie Steeves and LuzEstella Porras synthesise a particularly helpfulway in which to understand the body and how itshapes our identities and constructs the way weexperience and interact with the world around us:‘The body is not only a private realm, but a sitewhere multiple social oppressions and liberatingexperiences converge’ (2009: 155). Using bodilyimages as an entry point, these photographersbring us into conversations about what realwomen are thinking, feeling, and experiencing.

Photo by Karina Shalaby, Changing Focus participant

Photo by Marwa Abdel Fattah, Changing Focus participant

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