TITLE:
Forbidden Canvases: Feminist Art Activism and State Control in Kuwait
AUTHORS:
Eiman Husain
KEYWORDS:
Feminist Activism, Art Activism, State Control, Censorship, Kuwait, Digital Activism
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.14 No.7,
July
9,
2026
ABSTRACT: This paper examines feminist art activism within Kuwait’s contemporary digital landscape, a sphere shaped by overlapping censorship from state authorities and religious institutions. Drawing on online qualitative research design, the study employs an online ethnographic approach, an in-depth analysis of Shurooq Amin’s case study including her artwork, public statements, and social media activity. Alongside a semi-structured interview, primarily to investigate how feminist artists navigate state surveillance, deep rooted traditions and the digital law. The case of Shurooq Amin is illustrative: in 2012, her exhibition It’s a Man’s World was forcibly closed by Kuwaiti authorities, exposing the coercive mechanisms through which the state suppresses feminist expression. In response, Amin mobilised digital platforms, showing her work online, using hashtag campaigns, and pivoting to NFTs, with an international visibility to sustain public discourse on gender inequality, patriarchy, and societal hypocrisy. These findings demonstrate that while digital platforms function as powerful tools for resistance and mobilisation, they simultaneously replicate offline patriarchal power structures, exposing artists to misogynistic backlash. The paper concludes that feminist art activism in Kuwait operates within a structurally constrained field: individual agency can provoke and widen social discourse, but progress remains continually contested by conservative political and social forces.