Tsawwar… Ishaq Madan
Osaka 2025
“As the world comes together to discover and learn about different cultures, I found myself pondering on experiences that left me feeling uneasy and confused while navigating the world as a young Arab away from home. I recalled passive aggressive moments during my studies in the UK, where lecturers made stereotypical comments about Arabs having oil wells in their backyards or assumptions about everyone being born filthy rich. It’s one thing to see Hollywood’s vilification of Arabs, but to witness such ignorance at an academic level was disappointing. To this day, this rhetoric finds its way through as fascism seems to be in fashion. I always wondered why we hardly ever wore our thoubs with pride beyond the Middle East. Seeing my Arab counterparts roaming freely around Osaka wearing thoubs and ghitras gave me a sense of hope as the Japanese were quite curious and welcoming.”
Tsawwar is an ongoing visual series in Daftar that explores the stories behind a photograph, taken in the region or by an Arab photographer, written in their own words. Ishaq Madan is a self-taught Bahraini photographer whose street and conceptual work explores the human condition. Check out his work on @Ishaqmadan