These Shocking Illustrations Challenge The Social Norm Of Women Removing Their Body Hair
Entertainment Jan 23, 2016
One first-generation Pakistani-American dares to paint women with body hair in hopes of breaking the taboo.
Ayqa Khan is a 20-year-old self-taught digital illustrator and photographer living in New York. Born to Pakistani parents, she's all too familiar with the South Asian social pressure for women to look perfect — and appear hairless.
For Khan, the topic of body hair isn't taboo — hair is natural and something that almost everyone is born with. She first learned to love herself in her natural state.
Happy international woman's day even tho souls gave no genders :p
A photo posted by @ayqakhan on
Mar 8, 2015 at 7:10pm PDT
Ayqa shared on Tumblr: "My mother owns a beauty salon where she has made me get waxed ever since I was about 11 because she thought that the hair that was given to my body was 'unfeminine'. What bothered me the most was not the pain of getting waxed, but the idea that she thought something natural about me was 'gross.' I felt I looked at as an object, rather than a HUMAN. People from my school would stare at my thick arm hair in disgust really. And yes, this made me feel really insecure and unworthy."
Photo Credit: ayqaart.tumblr.com
Ayqa's illustrations of women with body hair aren't meant to shock but to create "a space of acceptance" and normalcy.
"Removing body hair is a voluntary act." —Ayqa Khan
Main Image Photo Credit: www.ayqakhan.com
Art Work, Ayqa Khan, Body Image, Feminine, Feminisim, Hair, Hair Salon, Hair Wax, Illustrations, Liberation, New York, Salon, Social Norms
Naemah Abid
Author
Born in Saudi Arabia and originally from Pakistan, this Canadian immigrant is all too familiar with airport life. After taking her first pleasure trip abroad post-graduation, Naemah was hit with the travel bug. Find this frequent traveller sharing pictures and experiences, offering up advice and tra...
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