Jenevieve Aken
Nigeria, b.1989
The Masked Woman 2, from The Masked Woman Series
2014
Photography
Artist’s collection
This picture is a part of Jenevieve Aken’s Masked Woman series, in which Aken photographs herself in different parts an unspecified home, representative of the ostracization women in Nigeria experience as a result of imposed gender roles. The “confident and sexually-free” woman is beyond the acceptable boundaries of social norms for Nigerian women, and consequently faces great stigmatization. Aken states that through her photography, she “chooses to give birth to her own freedom…[to inspire] other women in Nigeria to express their independence and free-will.” (Aken 2014: Masked Woman). For example, women’s ability to even have proprietary right to their property after marriage is challenged. Women often face discrimination in court, denying them said right, and if so, only conditionally. (Ashiru 2007: 319). Today women’s rights are still not fully respected by many men in power, despite pushes from groups such as Women in Nigeria, that aim to stop the double oppression that Nigerian women suffer (Women in Nigeria 1983: 138).
Aken, Jenevieve. “The Masked Woman.” (2014) Jenevieve Aken. https://www.jenevieveaken.com/untitled-gallery
Ashiru, M. O. A. “Gender Discrimination in the Division of Property on Divorce in Nigeria.” Journal of African Law 51, no. 2 (2007): 316-31. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27607991.
“Women in Nigeria.” Review of African Political Economy, no. 27/28 (1983): 138-39. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4005606.