After reviewing how Middle Eastern women have been photographed historically, the paper explores how contemporary Gulf women represent themselves, both behind and in front of the camera. Initially, women were invisible, then eroticized or exoticized in Orientalist photography, only to appear in early twentieth-century family portraits as both the repository of cultural values and as the new, modern woman. The reaction of contemporary Gulf female photographers to perceptions of themselves as jobless, nameless, faceless, and voiceless is presented in examples of art photography-cum-political commentary. The media coverage of Qatar’s Shaykha Mūza is analyzed in terms of her use of clothing as nonverbal communication and as a form of soft-power politics. It is followed by a discussion of the rules – formal and informal – for publishing photos of females. The paper concludes with a survey of Gulf females’ use of selfies. Thus, three aspects of photography – as art, as photojournalism, and as private communication – demonstrate how Gulf women visually represent their identities.

在回顾了中东妇女在历史上的摄影方式后，本文探讨了当代海湾妇女在镜头后和镜头前如何表现自己。最初，女性是不可见的，然后在东方主义摄影中被色情化或异国化，直到20世纪初的全家福才出现，既是文化价值的存储库，又是新近出现的现代女性。在艺术摄影和政治评论的例子中，展示了当代海湾女性摄影师对自己的失业，无名，无面孔和无声的看法的反应。卡塔尔的谢卡·穆扎（ShaykhaMūza）在媒体上的报道是根据她作为非语言交流和软实力政治形式的服装使用进行分析的。接下来是关于发布女性照片的规则（正式和非正式）的讨论。本文以对海湾地区女性自拍照使用情况的调查作为结尾。因此，摄影的三个方面–艺术，新闻摄影和私人交流–展示了海湾妇女如何在视觉上代表其身份。