Rua Elkasheef - Toronto, Canada. July, 2017.
I’m delighted to share a shot of Rua for this project, which marks the 70th and final instalment for the series. After coming across one of Rua’s Facebook posts a few days ago, I reflected on the negative impact of labels/categories when they painfully exclude certain people from a group that they might otherwise identify with. As a black Muslimah (Muslim woman), Rua expressed that “One thing I learned early is that, yes, people do associate a hijab with Islam - when it is on a nonblack body...but they honestly don't always have that same association when it comes to someone like me. It just doesn’t click, they think it has some other meaning.” While my goal with this series is multi-layered, one of the main objectives is to highlight the diversity amongst visibly Muslim women; coming from various ethinicities, cultural backgrounds and walks of life, Muslims are anything but a monolith.
It has been a beautiful experience to work on this project and I am ever-grateful to each of the participants for their time and enthusiasm. I hope to put together an event later this year that celebrates the sisters that made this project possible, so be sure to keep an eye out for those details.