If you’ve been in Global Scholars Hall this term, you may have noticed a series of photos in the first floor main hallway. These powerful photos are part of the Palestinians Envision Life Without Occupation exhibition, which depicts Palestinians living under Israeli occupation with quotes describing what they believe life would be like without said occupation.
Curator and visiting ethnic studies professor Irum Shiekh grew up in Pakistan, where she first learned about Israeli occupation of Palestine. To gain firsthand knowledge, she moved to the United States and then to Palestine to work as a Fulbright scholar, teaching media, film, anthropology, and sociology. As she continued to live and teach there, she learned of Palestinians’ experiences with checkpoints, security, and other aspects of the occupation.
“I wanted to be able to use my experience of living there and inform the public over here in the United States about what I learned,” she said. “But at the same time there was so much scholarship done about Palestine, about Palestinian issues that I did not want to just continue to do research about Palestine.”
According to Shiekh, articles about Palestine are often censored in the news media; she cites the example of a friend whose work was censored by the Associated Press for using the words “occupied” and “settlement.”
Dr. Shiekh didn’t want to use mainstream channels and instead decided to do something different.To her, photography would be the best medium to get her message across instead of videography, which she calls too “fleeting.” “I wanted these images to be still so it could talk to the audience,” she said.
Instead of writing her own captions, Dr. Shiekh wanted their own words to come out and show their agency.
“I wanted to create a space for voices which have been silenced in many ways,” she said.
She brought the exhibit to our Global Scholars Hall in order to make the people’s experiences more accessible. If the exhibit was in a museum, it would be viewed by a very different audience. Dr. Shiekh not only encourages people to visit the exhibit but to visit Palestine itself to learn firsthand about the occupation.
“I want [people] to recognize the lives of Palestinians,” she said. “I want people to recognize Palestinians as human beings with a vision for their home and their desire and their rights for freedom and self-determination. If we don’t want to live under occupation, then we don’t want that for Palestinians.”