Hello and welcome!
Veiled Voices 2020 is a participatory project which aims to start a conversation; to unpick perceptions of Hijab wearing in Britain and explore what women think and feel about the Muslim practice of veiling in the UK.
The conversation will take place over three key platforms – through community embroidery workshops, pop-up embroidery sessions, and here on this blog. Through the age-old feminist communication tool of embroidery, Veiled Voices 2020 invites women to come together and share their individual thoughts and feelings, documenting them onto a collaborative embroidery. Each and every woman’s voice is welcome. However you choose to participate, each contribution will be recorded with a single word or phrase being stitched onto the collaborative embroidery. My hope is that the embroidery will provide a platform which enables women to express themselves, ask questions and learn about each other.
This project has been developed in response to my love of clothing; my belief that women should be free to express themselves through their sartorial choices; my disappointment regarding the prejudice and type of language used in relation to those choosing to express their culture or religious beliefs through what they wear; and my fascination with the historical use of embroidery by hundreds of women across the world as rebellion, protest and voice.
The project forms the foundation of my Master’s Personal Research thesis. My findings will provide the foundation of my paper hoping to answer questions surrounding perceptions of hijab wearing in the UK and the ability of embroidery, craftivism and community participation projects to convey, address and give voice to discourse.
I am so glad you are here and hope you will stay long enough to add your voice to the conversation. Tell me… what does the veil mean to you? How does it make you feel?
Veiled Voices 2020 