Amal Khalaf and Loredana Mantello: Artist Statement

The home is one of the most common and frequent sites of violence against women, yet throughout the world, laws exist that leave them vulnerable to violence from within their own family networks. These laws discriminate against women in marriage and limit their access to divorce and child custody.

Unequal access to divorce has, in effect, condemned many women to violent and potentially life-threatening marriages. The difficulties of initiating divorce prevent many women from leaving abusive husbands. Many women endure violent relationships because divorce does not feel like a valid option; they suffer from societal and cultural restraints, a lack of information, and the fear of losing their children or being impoverished with no support systems.

Women who do escape physical violence by leaving their homes and seeking out divorce end up being denied the right to their children; even after leaving abusive relationships, they continue to suffer the psychological cruelty of being separated from their children by force.

After meeting with many women in Bahrain who have been victimized in their marriages, we started photographing those who escaped violent marriages and wanted to break the silence. Our journey with A* took us to places where justice and happiness do not exist. We followed her as she sought out the right to see her four children, who she hasn’t seen since escaping a violent marriage 5 months earlier, while still pregnant with her fifth child. As we documented her endeavors to see her children through social workers, lawyers or on her own, we found a world of closed doors, courtrooms, empty school grounds and memories.