From anti-colonial protestors to Olympic wrestlers, fashion designers and the creator of the world’s first visibly Muslim female comic superhero, the display honours the everyday resistance of Egyptian women, reclaiming their heritage, position in public, and role in revolutions, past and present.
!كل العيون عليها/ All Eyes on Her! takes its name from a popular Egyptian saying that describes the experience of feeling inspected as a woman in public. Yet, women are largely invisible in accounts of Egyptian history, both in ancient times and now.
Examining three themes – Resist, Revolt and Reclaim – and what they mean to Egyptian women, the display ranges from ancient belongings taken from Egypt during colonial times, to modern-day cultural heritage and more, including:
- a shabti revolution – ancient Egyptian shabti, used to represent the dead, are grouped to protest against their displacement, on behalf of ancient Egyptian women in the afterlife
- the outfit worn by women across faiths to protest in the 1919 anti-British colonial revolution
- contemporary designs by Egyptian fashion brand Ganubi, reimagining motifs of Egypt’s diverse heritage
- personal archives and memorabilia from Mayye Zayed’s award-winning documentary Lift like a Girl! which tells the story of working-class Egyptian women training to become Olympic weightlifters
- ancient Egyptian makeup alongside social media influencers who are adapting the signature Egyptian eyeliner style for the 21st century.
The display is presented bilingually in parts, with full Egyptian Arabic translations online, and with commissioned illustrations by Egyptian illustrator, Dina Zaitoun. It has been developed with Egyptian women and women-led initiatives in London, Cairo, the Egyptian Delta and Luxor, working in partnership with the Horniman since 2021.
It is also part of a three-year collaboration with researchers at UCL, through the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)-funded project ‘Mobilising Collections for Institutional Change’.
The Egypt we usually see in museums is an exotic, ancient concept. It’s also an Egypt without Egyptians and one that Egyptians do not relate to. ! كل العيون عليها/ All Eyes on Her! is an attempt to challenge these stereotypes by honouring the everyday activism of Egyptian women, past and present.
Over the past four years we have been critically reflecting with Egyptian women – from different backgrounds, ages and walks of life, both in Egypt and the UK – on how we can use the Egyptian belongings cared for at the Horniman to tell the stories that matter the most to them. This display captures the honest yet humorous conversations we had about who owns Egyptian heritage, which stories should be told in museums, and who gets to decide.
We hope that by having a 3,000-year-old makeup container in conversation with an anticolonial protestor, a hijabi fashionista, and a street rollerblader alongside graphics inspired by Egyptian WhatsApp chat stickers, we represent an Egypt that is relevant and relatable to both the Egyptian communities and our wider audiences.
! كل العيون عليها/ All Eyes on Her! is free to visit and is open from 4 April.
Main picture: 1991.460 – Scarf pins wrapped in paper printed with verse by Egyptian poet Ahmed Shawki, exiled by the British for writing anticolonial poetry.