|
Culture
Tunisian Artist Blacklisted, Condemned for Posing Semi Nude
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Cairo- (PanOrient News) A Tunisian artist appeared semi nude on the cover of TuniVision, a Tunisian magazine, causing a stir and reactions across Arabic media and social network sites.
Ms. Nadia Bostah posed to promote a film called "Tales of Tunisia” wearing low cut jeans and an open vest that only half covered her chest.
A wave of reaction, mostly censure, swept websites and The Association of Egyptian Art Professions has reportedly put Ms. Nadia Bostah on the blacklist demanding that art production companies, the media, the press and Art Unions remove her from all business concerns.
“Appearing semi-nude, she has abused Arab art, not to mention herself,” the Chairman of the association said. “Our Association condemns this act by the artist (Ms. Nadia Bostah,) and pledges to fight and prosecute any artists who offend Arab art this way.”
Critics view this case as part of and increase of nudity among young women living in Arab countries. The first case was Alia al-Mahdi, an Egyptian blogger, who last month published her nude pictures on her web log as an invitation for Arabian women’s sexual revolution.
The poster of Nadia Bostah elicited comments from all kinds of media.
"There is a big difference when women use their bare chests to defy bullets of repression and persecution as we saw during the events of the revolution in Tunisia (that toppled former regime of Bin Ali,) than when Nadia Bostah got involved in the business of showing her breasts to a photographer for money, while ignoring religious or moral values," a woman commented.
Some people have also accused Ms. Nadia Bostah of sabotaging the reputation of Tunisian women by becoming“a cheap commodity,” especially after the events of the revolution and the success of the Tunisian Islamic Revival Party.
Ms. Nadia Bostah, however, rebuffed these accusations and told some Arab media that she had not expected the matter to cause such a stir. Ms. Bostah said she agreed to pose only to promote the film and stressed that there were no political motives for her standing in front of the camera that way. On the other hand, she maintained that she used her body as "a means of expression".
Social experts have noted that an ordinary young woman exposing her nude or partly nude body might be an effect of the winds of freedom blowing across the Arab region. Some young women have started to publicly demand “real freedom” of expression even if this violates their strict social traditions and religious doctrine.
PanOrient News
© PanOrient News All Rights Reserved.
|
