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Gates and gazes: a visual analysis of expatriate women in Saudi Arabian gated communities

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thesis
posted on 2024-01-10, 09:09 authored by Hasnaa Alkhateeb

This practice-based thesis aims to visually document the individual and shared experiences of expatriate women in gated communities in Saudi Arabia. Since gated communities are set up as private spheres concealed from general sight, the research focuses on exploring the hidden spaces and cultural geographies of gated living, contrasting them to the ‘dream homes’ they are advertised to be.

Using visual methods and theoretical approaches, the thesis foregrounds photography’s ability to represent and identify gendered experiences of women within gated enclaves, and focuses on gated communities’ power to enforce behavioural changes and shape women’s practices. This is displayed creatively in a photographic book and critically in an accompanying commentary.

The photographic book, titled Through the Gates, presents, reflects on and documents the identity of expatriate women living in Saudi Arabia; situating them within the perspective of a Saudi woman (myself). This situated perspective is elaborated in a substantial section of the written submission, in the form of a creative autoethnographic journal documenting the researcher’s growing consciousness of parallel cultural and spatial transitions. Furthermore, it is proposed that the photographs reveal not only the expatriate women’s individuality but also the researcher’s own, showing different yet similar shared ‘liminal’ experience. The research explores and unveils the different evolving identities the women demonstrate when placed in a highly restricted atmosphere and in different cultures, while also bringing hidden communities, relationships and behaviours to light in a critical and visual manner.

The thesis is comprised of four chapters. The first identifies significant theories around gated communities, space, and gender, relating them to creative photographic practices, particularly as they have focussed on Saudi women’s lives. The second chapter outlines the visual methods and theoretical approaches used, including particular photographic practices and supporting interviews undertaken. The third chapter, organised through the analysis of three very different Saudi gated enclaves, uncovers how cultural, national, and religious discourses shape the lives of these gated community residents as they move between spaces. It further reveals the contrast between gated communities’ advertisements and the real life, often paradoxical, experiences within the enclaves, where women speak of solitude yet also solidarity, freedom as well as restriction. The fourth chapter presents the autoethnography structured as a journal. The journal is a contemplative, reflective, and personal narrative that documents and examines my research journey. It is a reflection on my position as a woman, a researcher and a photographer, who has experienced living in both Saudi Arabia and the UK, and who has been exposed to different societies. The journal further shows my awareness not only towards my own spatial and cultural identity but also my participants’. The chapter brings forward a better understanding of Saudi Arabia and the expatriate women’s gated living experience in the country.

The research concludes by reflecting on the women’s identity, their liminal shared experience, and the ability of photography and text to document and reveal certain dynamics, experiences, relationships, and behaviours within an enclosed community. It challenges our assumptions of domestic spaces and cultures, and the ways in which we relate to and are shaped by them. Together, the photographic book, critical commentary and autoethnography hope to open a dialogue between viewers and the subjects portrayed, ultimately encouraging greater understanding of the physical and mental gates which structure the lives of women in and outside gated communities and the Middle East.

History

File Version

  • Published version

Pages

242

Department affiliated with

  • Media and Film Theses

Qualification level

  • doctoral

Qualification name

  • phd

Language

  • eng

Institution

University of Sussex

Full text available

  • Yes

Supervisor

Professor Margaretta Jolly and Reader Melanie Friend

Legacy Posted Date

2020-07-29

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