Boushra Almutawakel

Boushra Y. Almutawakel (; born 1969) is a Yemeni photographer. Her work concerns the international perception of Arabs and Muslims and focuses in particular on the international perception of issues of gender and representations of Muslim/Arab women and their clothing.

Early and personal life Almutawakel was born in 1969 in Sana'a, Yemen. After studying at American University in Washington, D.C., she returned to Yemen in 1994, where she became one of the country's first female professional photographers.

She moved from Sana’a to France in August 2013 with her husband and their four daughters.

Work and career In 1996, she became a founder member of Al-Halaqa, an organisation that provided a space for art to be displayed and discussed.

In 1999, aside from developing her photographic work and being an educational adviser, Boushra Almutawakel was honoured as the first Yemeni female photographer by the Empirical Research and Women's Studies Centre at Sana'a University.

Almutawakel was living in the United States at the time of the September 11 attacks, which led her to focus on perceptions, both positive and negative, of Arabs and Muslims. She engaged specifically with the Egyptian writer Nawal El Saadawi's remark that "women who wore the hijab or niqab were the same as women who wore makeup in the sense that they all hid their true identities", and sought to interpret Saadawi's ideas through photography. Her "Mother, Daughter, Doll" (2010) series portrays a progression from Western clothing to the hijab and explores perceptions of women in particular. It includes photographs of "Fulla" dolls, a toy similar to Barbie dolls marketed to Muslim children. Almutawakel's work also examines the ways Yemeni women have covered their bodies historically and in the present.

She has worked as a photographer for the British Council, CARE, the Royal Netherlands Embassy, the French Cultural Centre, and the United Nations; and also worked for the Yemeni embassy in Washington, D.C. as a consultant on cultural affairs and for the Yemeni Ministry of Human Rights, focusing on women's issues.