As the name implies, the series “Forbidden: Women’s Lives in Afghanistan under the Taliban” explores the sequestered life of Afghani women under the Taliban regime, as an example of how fundamentalist religion restricts and reduces the lives of women in the name of maintaining men’s honor. The work was inspired by a variety of sources, including Eve Ensler’s book, “Insecure at Last: A Political Memoir,” the movie “The Kite Runner” and the work of RAWA, Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, but also reflects the artist’s long-standing interests in woman in Islam, the subject of her undergraduate thesis at the University of California, Berkeley, and the intersection of religion and women’s bodies.
Judith created the series during a retreat in Taos, New Mexico. Their genesis was a surprise to the artist, who bought several sheets of handmade papers at a local shop, intending to create a piece based on New Mexico, but found something entirely different emerging.
“Forbidden Self” is part of a larger series of yoni (vagina) paintings. The image of the woman locked in her house is a metaphor for the locking in of women’s sexual desire. The full moon, in the position of the clitoris, represents the potential for pleasure that women are born with, a potential which is seen as threatening to male dominance and too often ripped away under a practice euphemistically referred to as “female circumcision,” not only in Afghanistan but in other parts of Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
As in the other pieces, the windows in "Forbidden View" are blackened, a Taliban rule ostensibly made so that no unrelated man can see the women inside the house, but in fact keeping women from looking out. In this case, one young woman breaks the rules, standing on rocks to peek out at the full moon.
“Forbidden Knowledge” is inspired by the secret girls schools set up by RAWA (Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan) after the Taliban outlawed female education.
Among the many things that women and girls were not allowed to do under the Taliban was eat ice cream, because this pleasure, like others, was seen as lascivious; “Forbidden Pleasure” refers to the secret ice cream parlors which Ensler describes in her memoir.
“Forbidden Love” depicts a woman holding a love letter, which resulted in her being stoned. This last piece was also inspired by a conversation overheard in the cafe/gallery in Taos, New Mexico. A local woman who was stationed in Iraq in 2007 with the Army National Guard described seeing an Iraqi woman being stoned, a horrific event which both she and her platoon were not allowed to interfere with or stop.
