FIRST PRIZE
Gwyneth Talley (Assistant Professor, American University in Cairo): “Gunpowder Women”
These 4 photos are from a photo series meant to be viewed together from her fieldwork on Morocco’s minority women equestrians.
Through visual documentation, participation-observation, and interviews, she followed one of the few all-women tbourida (or fantasia) troupes in Morocco. The women stand out in contrast to the 20-30 men’s teams they compete against in local festivals throughout the summers in Morocco. Amal Ahamri’s team allowed her to accompany the women through the competitions and behind the scenes to ask what sets them apart from the men, but also how they are keeping this cultural heritage alive.
Getting Ready, 2016
Manar (left), Fatima (middle) and Bedia (right) in the process of donning their boots and sending last minute messages before mounting their horses.
Night Fire, 2016
The final charge down the field and fire the gunpowder rifles in perfect unison. This is a perfect scoring shot for the team.
Like Mother Like Daughter, 2016.
Amal celebrates a perfect shot with her daughter Lila (age 3) on top of her beloved horse Sharam Sheikh.
End Ride, 2016
Two young acolytes practice their riding skills at the end of a festival in hopes of riding in the next one.
SECOND PRIZE
Noha Fikry (PhD Student, University of Toronto): “Recipes for Relating: Home-rearing practices among women farmers in rural Egypt”
Careful selling
Poultry merchant selling chicks to a family in al-Daqahliyya governorate, Egypt. Poultry merchants wandering on their tricycles sell little chicks and poultry to women who rear them in their households for everyday nutritional sustenance. Photo taken during fieldwork & in the process of my interlocutors purchasing new chicks. Date: August 15, 2021.
A Palette of Rural Egypt
11-year old Hassan on a rooftop in al-Daqahliyya governorate, Egypt. Like many cities in rural and urban Egypt, agrarian fields are increasingly interrupted by 5 or 6-floor red brick buildings for larger and more families. Larger buildings denote status and wealth. Green, gray, and red form the current rural Egypt palette. Photo taken after a long sunset chat on rooftop rearing practices & rural-urban imaginaries with Hassan & his older sister. Date: August 15, 2021
THIRD PRIZE
Mary Elaine Hegland (Professor Emeritus, Santa Clara University): “Women and African Iranians in Ashura Rituals”
“Shemr” Goads Women Survivors of the Karbala Battle toward Syria, 13th of Muharram. (December 2, 1979), “Aliabad,” Shiraz, Iran.
Aliabad supporters of the Feb. 11 Iranian Revolution demonstrated their victory with a splendid Shii Muslim ritual. Commemorating the third day after the martyrdom of Imam Husein, they hired camels and horses, found costumes, and cowed relatives of the now defunct local Shah’s administrators and supporters. As usual, in the 1979 Aliabad commemoration, women did not join in the march of self-flagellants chanting couplets nor did they take any part in the Karbala passion procession. Most women stayed home but a few gathered to look on. “Shemr” (for Shii representing evil and injustice), dressed in red and on horseback whipped the female survivors, actually men, covered entirely in black and riding on camels. By acting in the pageant, these men demonstrated their loyalty to Imam Husein (representing courage, justice, religious power, preparedness for self-sacrifice to save Islam) and to the new Islamic Republic. However, representing a female may also have been problematic: one man shields his face.
Bushehr Women Singers Actors as the Karbala Battle Surviving Females, 13th of Muharram (Nov. 6, 2014), Bushehr, Iran.
Elsewhere, Shii Muslim