A transmedial project by Cigdem Yuksel and Maartje Duin

In ‘Moslima,’ Cigdem Yuksel wages war on a system.

A shapeless coat and floral-patterned headscarf, browsing market stalls pulling a trolley, shot from the back, at a distance, with a long lens. It’s a familiar image of ‘the Muslim woman’ in Dutch media. In the two-part radio documentary ‘Moslima,’ photographer/researcher Cigdem Yuksel and radio/podcast producer Maartje Duin team up to investigate how this image of ‘the Muslim woman’ came to be, and how they might change it.

To do this, they visit photographers, the ANP’s image bank and image editors at major newspapers. Many of them, it turns out, aren’t exactly thrilled by this. Cigdem and Maartje also talk to experts, who explain how the image of ‘the Muslim woman’ in the West arose, particularly in post-911 Netherlands. It becomes clear that image formation is a layered system in which every player bears responsibility.

Will Cigdem manage to convince others of this fact? How do you tear down a system that has been around for decades? “I won’t be intimidated, believe me.”

Listen to the podcast here (Dutch)

About the creators

Cigdem Yuksel (1989) is a photographer and researcher. In 2016 she won the prestigious Zilveren Camera award for her urgent portrait series of Syrian refugee children working in Turkish shoe factories.

She conducted research into our collective visual memory and the visual representation of Muslim women in the Netherlands. This resulted in a much-talked-about report from 2020 about the representation of Muslim women in the ANP’s image bank. She created the photo series A New Beginning, as part of transmedial project Shadow Game, which was exhibited across the country as well as in New York during the prestigious Photoville festival.

Maartje Duin (1975) is a passionate, original and award-winning radio/podcast producer. In her work she covers relevant social themes, like loneliness, dementia and our history of slavery. With De plantage van onze voorouders (Our ancestors’ plantation) she won, together with Peggy Bouva, De Tegel and the BNR Dutch Podcast Award 2020.

Cigdem and Maartje previously collaborated for De Volkskrant, among others.

‘Moslima'

Cigdem: “I’m from a Turkish family and I was raised a Muslim, but I don’t recognise myself, my friends or my family in the photos I see in the media. Those photos are usually one-dimensional and only amplify the stereotypical image of Muslim women. Whenever I spoke up about this, my comments were brushed off. With this project I want to kickstart the conversation about the image of ‘the muslim woman’ in media, and to change the system.”

Maartje: “Many Muslims and people of other marginalised groups don’t recognise themselves in how the media portrays them. This engenders distrust in journalism, an ever growing issue. Luckily there are people like Cigdem, who try to make these media incorporate their perspective, often meeting with great resistance in the process. It’s an important struggle: only by actively fighting stereotypes can we continue to see each other as humans.”

Bonus content

Along with the two-part ‘Moslima’ podcast, three bonus interviews have been released. The interviews were edited by our intern Lotteke Boogert. Listen to them (in Dutch) here:

Research report, oral histoy and exhibit

The podcast ‘Moslima’ is part of a larger research project. In 2020 Cigdem published her report on the representation of Muslim women in the ANP’s image bank. She is currently working on a second report, in which she investigates how photo’s of veiled women are used in newspapers. 2023 will see the release of an oral history project and an exhibition in the Dutch Photography Museum in Rotterdam.

Credits

Idea and research: Cigdem Yuksel
Direction and editing: Maartje Duin
Production Prospektor: Sanne Wiltink en Laura Verduijn
Creative production Prospektor: Eefje Blankevoort
Editor OVT: Laura Stek en Paul van der Gaag
Advice: Berna Toprak en Bente Hamel
Music: composition: Tijmen Bergman, vocals: Susanne Edam, bass: Eszl du Vois
Sound design and mixing: Wederik de Backer
Artwork: Zarlasht Zia en Kummer & Herrman
Editing assistance: Lotteke Boogert
PR: Thamar Kempees

Made possible in part by support from Fonds ZOZ

‘Moslima’