”In search of a bride for their son, elderly women “sometimes look for tall, blonde and white women. You find this not only in Jordan, but also in Syria and in Iraq,” Hijazi says.
How can you reconcile your identity as a liberating force while using the language of your oppressor and benefiting from physical freedom that many of those in your homeland do not possess? Assia Djebar wrestles with these questions in "Fantasia."
When West Africans resettle in the United States, Europe, or elsewhere, the tension disappears and they take on one identity, as Guinean, in a new foreign land. I am interested in exploring the factors that suddenly leads to unity and eventually the formation of a community in the foreign land but doesn’t seem to happen in their own home country.
"In the 1940s and 1950s, the architects, artists, and critics active in Bombay helped shape a national identity, working to embody both modern and historical local characteristics."