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(MEI) in Washington, D.C. is hosting a new exhibition, " ," highlighting the work of ten different Egyptian, Iranian, Jordanian, Lebanese, Palestinian, Saudi and Yemeni artists capturing portraits of women in their regions.

The show borrows its title from a poetry collection on love and loss by the Lebanese poet . According to MEI, the photographs selected for the exhibition are profoundly personal to their makers, reflecting their diverse experiences, and yet they also convey this sense of shared humanity among women. Award-winning Lebanese photographer curated the exhibition, which includes some of her own work.



“I’m not a curator. I’m a photographer. It’s my first time being on the other side of things,” Matar says in a .

“I feel like with the situation in the Middle East right now, it's such a bright spot to look at art and beauty and humanity and all coming from women.” Matar was born in Lebanon. In 1984, at age 20, she moved to the United States due to the ongoing civil war in her country.

Kicking off "Louder Than Hearts," her six-photo series, “Where Do I Go? 50 Years Later,” depicts women who left Lebanon in the aftermath of the —mirroring the artist's own experience 40 years ago. “I see my younger self in these women, but I also see their power, their beauty, their creativity and their love of this place,” Matar says in a . “This work is my love letter to the women of Lebanon.

” Instead of just portraying Middle Eastern women during hardshi.

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