Lina Hashim is an Iraqi photographer based in Copenhagen, Denmark. She focuses on ways through which Arab emigrants adapt to their lives in Northern Europe and balance their lives with their cultural values and religious beliefs. Hashim studied anthropology and photography and is currently enrolled at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. She focused over the past three years on two main projects: “Unlawful meetings” and “No wind - with hijab”. Hashim compares her role in the first to that of a “spy” who takes snapshots of intimate meetings between second generation Arab emigrants in public spaces; this project was compared to the work of Japanese photographer Kohei Yoshiyuki. Her second project is inspired by the emotional changes women encounter when wearing the veil versus being at home without it. For this project she sought the advice of an imam in Copenhagen about the possible sin of showing veiled women’s hair without exposing their identities. Hashim explains in this interview the reasons behind her interest in these topics and her approach to developing projects. She also shows us her work at her studio and photography lab at the academy.
Amira El Masry translated the interview to Arabic.
This video was produced by Medrar.TV in partnership with Kopenhagen Channel during an arts documentation workshop, organized by Medrar.TV in Copenhagen in September 2014, and with the support of International Media Support (IMS) and the Danish Centre for Culture and Development (CKU).
[This video was produced by Medrar TV and is featured in partnership with Jadaliyya Culture]