Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota, censored an art exhibit featuring the work of an Iranian-American woman with a content warning and curtains after Muslim students complained. The college described its censorship by saying it “prepared the gallery to prevent unintentional or non-consensual viewing of certain works and added a content warning.”
An exhibit at the school’s Law Warschaw Gallery featured art by Iranian-American artist Taravat Talepasand, which included depictions of partially-clothed women wearing a hijab or a niqab, according to a report by the College Fix.
“Talepasand explores how women navigate the geographic and physiological boundaries between East and West, revealing women’s bodies and perspectives becoming surfaces imprinted with the uncertainties of political and social upheavals,” read a description of the art exhibit.
“This exhibition is a record of one Iranian-American woman’s attempts to grapple with her difficult legacy, to transform it visually, to make something both beautiful and uncomfortable of this condition,” the description added.
The art exhibit was briefly closed by the college, before being reopened with content warnings and art pieces hidden behind curtains following Muslim students’ complaints.
“The Muslim community at Macalester was not contacted for input or construction regarding the hiring of the artists and the content of the work being displayed,” read a petition submitted by some Muslim students and others associated with the college.
“There were numerous pieces shown with the Talepasand work that depicted various mediums from paintings to sculptures of Hijab and Niqab wearing women in overtly sexualized way,” the petition stated.
“Though we respect the principle of academic freedom, we are also simultaneously aware that freedom, like art, does not simply exist in a vacuum,” the students added.
The Muslim students went on to claim that continuing to display Talepasand’s art is “targeting and harming” a small community on campus.
“The decision to display and continue to display this exhibition despite the harm it perpetuates is a deeply problematic issue,” the petition read. “It is targeting and harming an already small community that exists on this campus.”
Macalester College responded to inquiries by explaining that “after a short pause,” the Law Warschaw Gallery reopened its art exhibit, according to a report by Sahan Journal.
During this time, we had several conversations with students, faculty, and staff to consider multiple perspectives from Muslim communities on campus, worked with the artist, and supported gallery staff. We also prepared the gallery to prevent unintentional or non-consensual viewing of certain works and added a content warning.
Talepasand responded to the controversy by telling the College Fix that “too much sensitivity doesn’t prepare [students] for what’s out there in the real world.”
The artist added that the closure of the exhibit was “offensive and ethically wrong — in terms of putting the black curtains over the windows,” and that the gallery ceased communication with her after the exhibition was censored.
Talepasand added that despite the closure of the exhibit, the art was well received by attendees on opening night.
“Trigger warnings are being used all the time,” Talepasand said. “I read professors, even tenured, are losing their jobs for accidentally slipping up and saying something or being misunderstood.”
As Breitbart News reported last month, an art instructor is suing Hamline University for not renewing her contract after she showed a medieval depiction of Islam’s prophet Muhammad in class.
Incredibly, the university’s response to student complaints was that “respect for the observant Muslim students in that classroom should have superseded academic freedom.”
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
