zaras_49-51r.qxp_Arts and Culture 7/16/20 2:31 PM Page 51
Aïda Muluneh’s "Return of a Departure" is currently on display at the Sharjah Art Foundation’s Africa Institute.
history and identity. Official reports estimate that nearly 300,000 Ethiopian female domestic workers migrated to the Middle East—mostly to Lebanon and Gulf Arab countries—between
2008 and 2013. But this does not take into account the likely hundreds of thousands migrating illegally, according to a 2017 report by CVM Ethiopia, the International Domestic Workers Federation, and the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women. The majority of these women obtain visas through the kafala sponsorship system, which grants the employing family absolute control over the sponsored worker. This system has embroiled the Gulf Arab countries in international condemnation, as it has too often resulted in slave-like exploitation. Although Ethiopia barred this form of migration in 2013, new agreements signed in 2018 lifted the ban in August 2019, and women continue to report the same abuses. In April 2020, Saudi Arabia and the UAE also incurred backlash for the sudden deportation of thousands of Ethiopian migrant workers due to mounting fears of COVID-19, highlighting once again their disposable status. Despite Ataya’s direct reference to this exhibition in her article, the reality of Ethiopian women as exploited migrant workers in the Middle East was not explicitly mentioned. However, this exhibition of Muluneh’s work in Sharjah presents an opportunity to address systemic racism on both a local and international scale. As Sharjah’s two-year-old Africa Institute carves out its place in academia, one hopes that it will heed Ataya’s own advice to engage in the difficult but urgent conversations this exhibition inspires. â–
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WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS
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