Born in Morocco but having lived in Saudi Arabia and the USA, Lalla Essaydi’s work demonstrates her need to document the ‘spaces’ that she, as an Arab woman, has inhabited both physically and psychologically. Although she admits that her work is an expression of her personal history, she acknowledges how it reflects the sentiment of many women throughout the Muslim world. By considering the manner in which the public space in the Arab world is typically patriarchal and the private space, matriarchal, Essaydi highlights the importance of architecture in Islamic culture and reflects on the way in which structures of power dictate a space’s functional purpose. Moreover, as she incorporates calligraphy over her imagery, she employs a sacred Islamic art that has long been customarily inaccessible to women. By applying it with henna, a dye used for a ritualistic body art meant solely for women, Essaydi’s work is layered with allegory that calls to mind the Orientalist voyeur.