So just in case you weren’t able to imagine a Lebanon, without women, Fashionbeirut.com has produced an epic photo-shoot that may just help you visualize. The collaboration between NO Rights NO Women campaign seems unlikely but if you take a look at these shots, everything will start making sense. And guess what? This is a 100% Lebanese production, with a Lebanese creative director, Lebanese photographers and even Lebanese models! Bisoux
This one is my personal favorite, the woman turned “construction worker.” Click here to see the rest of these fabulous high-fashion shots.
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My issue with this— is that it took an idea which is to better situation of Lebanese women, essentially a feminist movement that would see a lot wrong with this and made women sexual objects which doesn’t give us more rights. We, as sexual objects, do not deserve to have all these rights is how the world sees it. This just goes further to show that no matter how we turn it, it’s all we are.
Dear Mariam,
I directed these fashion shoots myself, and they were approved by the women who started this campaign. There is no use of “sex” nor sexiness in the way we shot our models. In fact, I can assure you that the setting, outcome, and everything else would have been exactly the same had I chosen to use male models for the campaign.
I was asked to do a fashion shoot for a fashion agency – meaning that what we do are fashion and beauty shoots; unlike something that could have been done by a regular advertising agency for instance. You can be beautiful and sexy without being seen as a sexual object. Fighting for your rights as a woman doesn’t mean that you have to get rid of your beauty or sexiness. Just as men also have their beauty and sexiness: it is something that is part of us as human beings, regardless of what gender we belong to, and regardless of whether we want to think of human beings as genders or not.
The problem is not with fashion and models. The problem is with a misconception of the fashion world and its association with the use and exploitation of bodies, especially female ones. And I find this very sad.
On the contrary, as a fashion director, by associating myself with social causes, I am trying to give a different look at fashion and help people get rid of their preconceived ideas: Fashion can be intelligent, ethical, useful, helpful, and can make social changes – without losing its art, beauty, style, and everything that it involves.
I am proud to have been assigned to do this shoot by the group of Lebanese women who started this campaign, and I am very happy to see how the campaign and the shoots were acclaimed and spread inside and outside Lebanon. At the end of the day, we are all very conscious that it is impossible to please everyone, but let’s not lose focus here: if this campaign and maybe these photos can somehow help you have the right to give your nationality to your kids in the future, then it’s all for the best.
Much sincerely 🙂
Rabih