Ms Saffaa
Alessio: You first came under the spotlight for your ‘I am my own guardian’ murals.
The series depicted women wearing traditional male headdresses in protest against Saudi laws that subject women to the authority of a male guardian. What inspired it?
Ms Saffaa: I come from an open-minded family, and I had never felt the impact of guardianship laws until I came to Sydney, Australia. I got a scholarship from the Saudi government, and one of the conditions is that women are meant to have male guardians with them. I didn’t have one with me, so they threatened to suspend my scholarship until my male guardian arrived in Sydney. That’s what inspired the work.
The only other time guardianship laws affected me was after my image went viral and I was
