Artist in Spotlight 'To paint to tell our stories is resistance'

Malak Mattar in conversation with Pragna Patel and Rashmi Varma

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31273/fd.n8.2025.1988

Abstract

Feminist Dissent is proud and honoured to be able to showcase the art of Malak Mattar in issue 8. This interview features Malak Mattar in conversation with Pragna Patel and Rashmi Varma.

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Author Biographies

  • Malak Mattar

    Malak Mattar was born in 1999 in the Gaza Strip and grew up under occupation and the military siege. From a family of talented cultural practitioners, Mattar started making art as a teenager during a period of open conflict (Operation Protective Edge, 2014), and she soon began to sell work online and exhibit internationally. She won a scholarship to study political science at Istanbul Aydin university (2018–22) and another to study a Masters of Fine Art at Central Saint Martin’s, London, in 2023.

  • Pragna Patel, Southall Black Sisters

    Pragna Patel is a founding member of Southall Black Sisters’ advocacy and campaigning centre and Women Against Fundamentalism. She worked as a co-ordinator and senior case worker for SBS from 1982 to 1993 when she left to train and practice as a solicitor. In 2009 she returned to SBS as its Director. She has been centrally involved in some of SBS’ most important cases and campaigns around domestic violence, immigration and religious fundamentalism. She has also written extensively on race, gender and religion.

  • Rashmi Varma, English and Comparative Literary Studies, University of Warwick

    Rashmi Varma teaches English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Warwick in the UK. She is the author of The Postcolonial City and its Subjects (2011) and of the forthcoming Modern Tribal: Representing Indigeneity in Postcolonial India. She has published numerous essays on feminist theory, activism and literature. She lives in London and has been a member of Awaaz-South Asia Watch and Women Against Fundamentalism.

Image 9: My Skin is Not a Sin (2020) by Malak Mattar

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Published

2025-07-14