“Adjudicating the Jezebel” reflects the current moment and American history for women, immigrants, and people of color. The image contains motifs inspired by Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib’s tunic dress, a Palestinian embroidered thobe, worn to her 2019 swearing-in ceremony at the U.S. House of Representatives. The 2018 United States Midterm Election was historic by several measures. Occurring during the presidency of Donald Trump, it contained several electoral firsts for women, racial minorities, and LGBTQ candidates. Among these many firsts was a victory for Rashida Harbi Tlaib of Michigan's 13th Congressional District. She was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, as one of the two first Muslim-American Congresswomen and the first Palestinian-American to hold the office. Her victory was also hailed as part of a new wave of progressive leftist women of color who challenged the Democratic Party establishment—from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York City to Ilhan Omar in Minnesota and aided by unprecedented turnouts of women voters across the United States. However, the controversy and criticism of Congresswomen Tlaib, Omar, and Cortez continue to illuminate the difficulties in ‘being first’, especially for women who are persons of color. At times, they are held up as saviors of the party, and at others, transgressive women who dare to challenge the status quo. As a Palestinian-Iraqi American artist, the Palestinian thobe has featured prominently in my work as narratives of identity, maternal lineage, resilience, and women’s labor. I collaged the Palestinian embroidery patterns, historic political posters of resistance, and my own photographs to construct a tension between cultural identity, gender, and intersectional feminism seen in the 2018 election. The trailblazing paths of Tlaib and women like her honors the sacrifice and labor of the suffrage movement, and the enduring fight for a democracy that serves us all. 

Sama Alshaibi acknowledges Park Avenue Armory for development support in association with the creation of this work.  

Adjudicating the Jezebel
Medium: mixed media on linen
Size: 48 in h x 24 in w
Year: 2020