Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie

Description

Syrian lingerie is racy attire little-known in the west. Manufactured in Syria and exported throughout the Middle East, it blinks, sings, vibrates, and flashes lights, and is adorned with everything from faux fir to artificial flowers and feathered birds to colourful plastic toy cell phones. This sort of lingerie is well known and accepted in Syrian culture, and is openly displayed in the markets and souks - it forms an important part of the longstanding folk traditions around weddings and marriage. Brides-to-be are given it as gifts by their mothers, or buy it themselves; husbands buy it for wives. "The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie" gathers together text and photo essays that introduce and celebrate some of the most outrageous undergarments in the world, and challenge our perceived notions of women, sex, and humour in the Muslim world.

Malu Halasa is an editor and journalist. She is the co-editor of Creating Spaces of Freedom: Culture in Defiance (2002), Transit Beirut: New Writing and Images (2004), and Transit Tehran: Young Iran and its Inspirations (2008). Former managing editor of the Prince Claus Fund Library, she was also a founding editor of Tank magazine. She lives in London and writes for the British press. Rana Salam has run her own London-based design practise since 1992. Her exploration of Middle-Easter popular culture, product design and crafts has led her to create and distinct graphics style. She has been commissioned by Paul Smith, Liberty's and Harvey Nicolls, among others. She has been exhibited in Lebanon, the United State Emirates and the United Kingdom by the Arts Council and Institute of International Visual Arts (inlVA). Omar Al-Moutem has been taking photographs for the past twenty-five years. He first worked as a passport photographer and later as a product photographer before setting up his own studio. He photographs for Syrian lingerie manufacturers in Damascus. Gilbert Hage is an artist and photographer who has exhibited in Lebanon, Brazil and Germany. Her participated in Present Absence: Contemporary Art from Lebanon (2004) at Galerie Tanit, Munich. Hage teaches at the University Saint-Esprit de Kaslik in Lebanon and at the Academie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts (Alba), University of Balamand. Iman Ibrahim has been writing poetry for the past twelve years. Her poems have appeared in Syrian newspapers and magazines. Her first book of verse, The Window of Zebra, was published by the Syrian Ministry of Culture. After she studied photography at Le Pont Gallery in Aleppo, her work has consisted primarily of self-portraiture. She has exhibited in Syria, Lebanon and Europe. Noura Kevorkan is a filmmaker, painter, photographer and composer. Her first documentary, Veils Uncovered (2001), won numerous awards, including the National Film Board Award for Best Canadian Documentary at the 2002 Reelworld Film Festival, Toronto and the Golden Sheaf Award for Best Documentary at the 2002 Yorkton Film Festival. It was also nominated for Best Documentary at the 2002 New York International Independent Film and Video Festival. Reine Mahfouz, a photographer, documented Palestinian camps in Lebanon for UNESCO. Her many ongoing photography projects include Beirut Unveiled (1998), documenting the city's continuing evolution through its construction awnings and the portraiture project "Nomadic Studio" (2001) featured at Home Works III, Ashkal Alwan's art symposium. Issa Touma has been a photographer for the past fifteen years. In 1992 he established the first photography gallery in Syria, the Black and White Gallery. After its closure in 1995, he opened Le Pont, the only gallery dedicated to contemporary photography in Aleppo. In 1997 he founded the biennial Aleppo International Photography Gathering, an event that grew form 600 visitors in its first year to more than 7,000 in 2004.