In Arabic, the word  راوية (rawiya) means “she who tells a story.” The photographs in She Who Tells a Story: Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World—made by women with roots in Iran and the Arab world—are themselves a collection of stories. Far removed from the myths and tales of the “Persian” Queen Sheherazade and the “Arabian” One Thousand and One Nights, this collection features compelling narratives about contemporary life. Ranging in style from fine art to photojournalism, they provide insight into major political and social issues of a part of the world that is historically misrepresented, and often misunderstood.

The works in She Who Tells a Story are by 12 prominent photographers spanning the 1990s to today. Their images are about the people, landscapes, and cultures of a region in flux—one that cannot be defined in a singular territorial, religious, or ethnic way. Reflecting on the power of politics and the legacy of war, the photographs in this exhibition challenge Western notions about the “Orient,” examine the complexities of identity, and redefine documentary as a genre. With passion and power, these artists touch on the visible and the invisible, the permissible and the forbidden, the spoken and the silent, and the prosaic and the horrific. She Who Tells a Story is an invitation not only to discover new photography, but to shift perspectives and to open a cultural dialogue that begins with art.

She Who Tells a Story: Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World was co-organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.