»»» This is a Zoom performance 

»»» 13th & 14th March 2021 (21hr@Singapore / 14hr@Berlin / 8hr@New York).

In Singapore, Malay-Muslim women’s body is constantly controlled and monitored by the state and the religion. To them, we are not persons, we are just an instrument. The state sees our body as an economic and political tool to serve its nationalistic goals, while our religion reduces our body to the functions of child-bearing and care-giving. 

Daging (Malay word for meat) is about the conflict that I experience with the state and religious control, as a Malay-Muslim woman. Being pregnant awakens a new-found power and potential within my own body. The ability to create life makes me realise the divine and goddess in myself. Only I can know and decide what my body needs and wants. I use my pregnancy to resist the state and religious control over my body, and find my freedom within Singapore’s nationalistic and religious context.

About the artist
Hasyimah Harith (Singapore) is a Malay-Muslim female artist that has been trained in Malay folk dance for 15 years. She performs, choreographs and teaches traditional Malay dance repertoires, such as Asli, Inang, Joget and Zapin. She is also a visual arts educator and a co-founder of P7:1SMA, a dance company formed in 2016 that uses dance to confront and reimagine the Malay’s relationship to their identity.

Using her body as the starting point, Hasyimah works with the Malay identity, traumas of colonisation and female sexuality, as a way to reclaim the agency over her body. Her working method involves strategies such as vulnerability, pleasure and confession. She believes in the power of the body to confront and overcome the conditioned shame that is often attached to Malay-Muslim female sexuality.

About the event

• There will be a post-show-dialogue (30mins) after each performance.
• This is free event, but a donation would be greatly appreciated and goes directly to supporting the artist.
• Registration is required. Please write to bodytroubles@hotmail.com
  – Indicate which date you would like to attend.
  – A confirmation email will be sent to you, with the relevant information to access the performance and ZOOM
  – Check your spam inbox, in case the confirmation email lands there.
  – Registration will close 12hrs before the start of the performance.

• Facebook event: https://fb.me/e/iNWUmibOp