A video display in a New Zealand art gallery will exclude men because it shows Muslim women without veils. The ban in an exhibition due to open next month is discrimination, a lawyer says.The Dowse Art Museum is hosting the world premiere of an art installation including a video by Qatari writer and film-maker Sophia Al-Maria called Cinderazahd: For Your Eyes Only. It shows women getting ready for a wedding without wearing hijabs, or veils.
Museum director Cam McCracken earlier said Al-Maria's work would be off-limits to men in keeping with the artist's wishes. He said, "I haven't seen the work, and I won't. I've bought into the fact that we take this work on the proviso that no men see it. We respect the artist and the privacy of the women who are portrayed."
Nicholai Anderson, a senior associate at the law firm Chen Palmer, said that banning men would be unlawful discrimination by the museum and the people displaying the work. He said people had rights to their own religious beliefs "but at the same time under the laws of New Zealand to not admit someone because of the sex they are is unlawful."
In a statement, Al-Maria said that images should be treated as privileged and private, for women's eyes only.
McCracken said the work would probably be screened in a small curtained-off area behind the gallery's reception, not usually open to the public.