The Middle-Distance

In the politics of the fight between East and West, the role of women in society is often brought out as a measure of what is right and what is wrong. Accusations are thrown around, but so often without an understanding of the culture to which they are being applied. In Western societies the veiling of women is seen as an imposition that takes away rights and freedom; in cultures where veiling is customary, it is seen as a way of protecting women. But the veil is just one issue on the

surface of deep-rooted differences between our cultures.

My interest in this subject began while I was working as a freelance photographer in India. Originally I hadn’t wanted to work on stories about women, but as I travelled the country on other assignments, I continually found myself coming into contact with women trodden down by the society around them.

In Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-majority state, I met women widowed by the conflict. Left with children to look after and no source of income in a place where women rarely work, they were often mistreated, beaten and even thrown out of the house by their in-laws. I was shocked to see this from the very people who should have been supportive at a time of mutual loss.

This treatment of women is not exclusive to Islam, it is deeply rooted in the culture of India. Sati, the practice of a widow throwing herself on her husband’s funeral pyre, is a Hindu tradition and the dowry system spans all religions.

Over the two years that I worked in India, I found myself increasingly wanting to cover these issues. But the western audience that sees my work views India as a far away backward place and isn’t surprised to see images of women struggling for their rights. I wanted to find a way of showing these stories so that people might be able to understand them in a cultural context that is not so alien to them. Similarly, I grew to feel that there was a misunderstanding in the places that I worked of what women represented in my country.

I had the idea to look for a meeting point, a crossover between this culture and the one that I had grown up with. I decided to go to the border between Europe and Asia and see if it could offer some answers to this cultural divide between East and West. My project is called The Middle-Distance and it is an attempt to find a place that can offer an explanation to both sides of the equation.

Five countries lie across the border between Europe and Asia: Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Russia. I have been travelling this borderland, meeting young women and tying to get a sense of what life is like for them in this place caught between one culture and another. It is as much about discovering a place on the edge of these continents as about the journalistic stories. In the pictures I have demonstrated this with landscapes and interiors, which I see as an important foundation for the work.

The project focuses particularly on young women, looking at a stage in life when they have to make decisions between education, work and family. I feel that the opportunities and restrictions on young women at this stage is a huge indicator of the society they live in.

One family I stayed with in eastern Turkey wouldn’t allow their three daughters to leave the house. I tried to get permission to take them out. The girls are not religious, they don’t pray and don’t cover their hair (even if they were to come out) but I was told that it would be too controversial in the neighbourhood. It was not the pressure of Islam but their community that restricted them.

At times I have been shocked by the stories, seeing the pressure put on young women, struggling to be symbols of purity and righteousness, as well as wanting to pursue a life for themselves. Some have been successful in finding an independent life and others have had little opportunity, but everywhere I see women with an amazing spirit and dignity, an ability to keep their heads high. I found myself constantly wondering whether I would have been able to do the same, had it been my life.