Object Timeline

  • We acquired this object.

2008

  • Work on this object began.

2019

2020

2025

  • You found it!

Photograph, Les Femmes du Maroc: Harem Women Writing, from the series Les Femmes du Maroc

This is a Photograph. It was photographed by Lalla Essaydi.

This object is not part of the Cooper Hewitt's permanent collection. It was able to spend time at the museum on loan from Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco as part of Contemporary Muslim Fashions.

It is dated 2008. Its medium is chromogenic print mounted to aluminum with luster laminate. It is a part of the department.

In her work, Lalla Essaydi, who grew up in Morocco and Saudi Arabia and has lived in France and the United States, confronts traditional representations of Arab and Muslim women in the Western art canon. By showing actively engaged women, she decolonizes the artistic genre that casts them as passive objects of the male gaze.

It is credited Courtesy of Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York & Zurich, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, and Lalla Essaydi.

Its dimensions are

H x W: 121.9 × 152.4 cm (48 × 60 in.) Frame H x W x D: 121.9 × 152.4 cm (48 × 60 in.)

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Contemporary Muslim Fashions.

There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian’s Terms of Use page.

If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://www-6.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/2318797373/ |title=Photograph, Les Femmes du Maroc: Harem Women Writing, from the series Les Femmes du Maroc |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=20 March 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>