The municipal museum of the Hague had decided not to exhibit a project showing homosexual men with masks of Mohammed and his son-in-law Ali ( picture here). The exhibition, "Adam and Ewald", also shows Dutch homosexual men. It was prepared by Sooreh Hera, originally of Iran, who has now been living in the Netherlands for 7 years.
Sooreh Hera says that the Islamic world holds a hypocritical attitude towards sex. Homosexuals in countries such as Iran and Saudi Arabia are treated roughly while it is quite usual for married men to have sex with other men. But that is kept hidden.
Hera photographed many homosexuals, two of which were of Iranian origin. According to Hera they did not ant to be recognized and therefore wore masks. In order to denounced the hypocrisy in the Muslim world, she used the faces of Mohammed and Ali.
The museum originally agreed to show the pictures and its manager Van Krimpen was interviewed saying that as a museum director he doesn't use political criteria and that he thought the work was outstanding. However, the museum has now announced that they will not show Hera's work because it would be seen as offensive by certain groups and because they don't want to serve as a political forum.
Sources: Volkskrant (Dutch), HLN (Dutch)
1 comment:
I would love to see the outcry if this work was shown in public.
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