The Eclipse of the (Fe)Male Sun is a collaborative research project that was started in spring 2020 by art historian and writer Nour Helou and artist and writer Afrang Nordlöf Malekian. In August 2019, Afrang initiated a research project at the Arab Image Foundation on image culture from Iran and its diaspora. A fundamental part of the work consisted of digitizing and documenting hand-colored photographic collections from Iran, but also Kuwait and Lebanon. The aesthetics of the images – smooth skin, pink lips, and bleached skin – bore a resemblance to Afrang’s Iranian passport photo, so he began to study the history of image retouching. Later that same year, Afrang and Nour met in a bar in Badaro. They found a common interest-ground based on beauty ideals in hand-colored photographs that can be traced to the Qajar dynasty painting tradition in Iran (1789-1925). In said paintings, people were depicted with specific beauty standards: moon-faced figures, crescent eyebrows, rosy cheeks, pink lips, and smooth skin. Pre-modern Arabic, Islamic, and Persian image culture reflect non-binary gender expressions and homosocial relations as part of everyday life. Strict notions of femininity and masculinity did not necessarily prevail before the modernization process took place in these regions. Instead, specific facial expressions were celebrated as more beautiful than others.

From the play “Shams el …” directed by Monzdeebon Fekryi. From left to right: Iran Daftari en Shahla Riahi. Gelatin silver print, 1942-1943, Tehran, Iran. Asghar Beechareh Collection, with thanks to the Arab Image Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon

The Eclipse of the (Fe)Male Sun

Once upon a time, there was a sun, both male and female, with thick eyebrows, mustache, locks of hair, eyes, and a small mouth. Its task was to represent the beauty of the Shah in the ruling Qajar dynasty (1789-1925) in Iran. At that time, standards of beauty were not gendered but rather expressed by a series of attributes, hence the graceful female and male sun. In the middle of the 19th century, a slow yet powerful solar eclipse began in Iran. Launched by a western wind, it is today known as colonialism, imperialism, and modernization. It had many demands, one of them being a heteronormative world, and the eclipse of the (fe)male sun became inevitable. A new sun, without facial features, appeared, but a few sunbeams of the old sun still managed to escape this barrier. They remain radiant and shining to this day. From the margin of this blockage, the sun rays pierce through to reveal themselves in stories.