Myrto Papadopoulos

Freelance Photographer
The New Plastic Road 2011-2016
Location: Athens
Nationality: Greek- Canadian
Biography:   Myrto Papadopoulos finished her studies in 2003 after completing a five-year Fine Arts degree, majored in painting and photography. In 2006, she applied for a documentary photography degree at the ICP (International Centre of Photography)... MORE
Private Story
The New Plastic Road 2011-2016
Copyright Myrto Papadopoulos 2024
Date of Work Aug 2011 - Oct 2016
Updated Jun 2017
Topics Community, Documentary, Editorial, Education, Environment, Faith, Freedom, Globalization, Islam, Isolation, Landscape, Minority, Multimedia, Photography, Photojournalism, Politics, Portraiture, Poverty, Religion, Womens Rights, Youth
(Please note this project is in development and is not related to the pictures and video included)


Zhaná

My goal is to create a photography and cross-media project that will explore the modern existences of Pomak women, an isolated Muslim minority group living in the region of Thrace in northwestern Greece.

BACKGROUND
The Pomaks are ethnically Slav, Muslim citizens of the Greek state. The 1923 Treaty of Lausanne granted Greece's Muslim minority religious freedom and relative autonomy. In practice, this means that sharia law continues to be implemented to this day in the Pomak and other villages. Muftis appointed by the Greek state act as judges in civil cases such as those concerning marriage, divorce, and inheritance.

"Greece constitutes the only European State that has officially recognized and preserved the application of Islamic law for more than a century." - Oslo Law Review, 2015, Issue 3.

While this parallel system has helped the Pomak community retain its cultural identity, it has also been criticized for failing to protect Muslim women's constitutional rights and for gender discrimination. Furthermore today the desire of some women to move beyond the tight confines of traditional Pomak society is a major source of tension for the community.

The issues this minority group of Muslim women face have long been under-reported. This is despite their obvious relevance to ongoing political debates in Europe concerning minorities.

EMINE'S STORY
Just a few kilometers away from the Pomak villages where someone can hear both the bells of the Christian churches and to the muezzin making the call to prayer, we meet Emine Bourountzi. A divorced 35-year-old Pomak Muslim woman, she left her home village over a decade ago with her then-husband whom she was forced to marry at only 13 years of age.

"I felt as if I was a sheep fleeing its herd" she says of her move to the city of Xanthi. "I come from a very religious Muslim family and entering a city filled with Orthodox Christians while I wore a headscarf, was a new transition for me. I decided to take my headscarf off a few years later. I felt it had been forced on to me and that all those years [in my village] I had been living in exile. Having no identity and being uneducated."

Today Emine, a mother of three, has become a leading voice of Pomak women in the nearby city of Xanthi. She attends a Greek public school trying to finish her education and is fighting for gender equality. At the same time however, she remains proud of her Pomak identity and is working to preserve her heritage by creating a cultural center for the Pomaks in the city of Xanthi.

Emine's experience is just one example of the dualities Pomak women contend with, being part of a conservative Muslim community governed by sharia law on the one hand yet at the same time being citizens of an EU country in which church and state are separate by law. Emine's and other women's experiences of this duality of existence will be a key focus of the project.

PHOTOGRAPHIC APPROACH & GOALS

Visual story-telling will enable the subject matter to be portrayed in a powerful manner. Located a short drive from the modern city of Xanthi, the mountainous Pomak region remains a microcosm unto itself, with many aspects of village life largely unchanged since the early 20th century.

Traveling around the villages, women can be seen alone in the fields cultivating tobacco in the traditional manner; most of the men have emigrated abroad for work due to the economic crisis. The villages come alive for religious festivities (Bayram), during which young men temporarily return and events such as the 'bride bazaars' take place. At the same time, modern life is never too far away; this contrast will be a key feature of the project.

Participatory tools such as writings and images authored by the women themselves will also be used to enrich the project and provide them tools and a platform of self-expression and assisting in their empowerment.

Ultimately my goal is to bring these women's stories to a wider audience, portraying a difficult subject with compassion and informing broader debates about minority experiences in a positive manner.




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