Celebrating Dame Zaha Hadid: Structures as fluid and dominating as her assertive nature

Hadid Family Archives, copyright Zaha Hadid

Words by Dalia Al-Dujaili , Edited by Noor Palette

“I want to make the building look like it’s floating,” evocative of the grandeur of her dreams, these are the words of the late Dame Zaha Hadid. And whilst listening to her episode of Desert Island Discs podcast, I began wondering why there hadn’t been more effort put into cataloguing the formidable Arab women that have defied societal notions of inferiority and subjection. Whilst I don’t want to commit the Orientalist faux pas of assuming that all Arab women are oppressed in some way, it stands to be true that women in the region are not yet equal in opportunity to their male counterparts, and nowhere is this more true than in the workplace. Just look at the UAE’s recent Gender Balance Index awards which were won entirely by a swathe of men. In 2017, Saudi Arabia lifted its driving ban on women, and the Cairo International Film Festival became the first Arab (and second African) film festival to join the Gender Parity Pledge 5050×2020, launched during the Cannes Film Festival in 2018. Even so, Iraq’s youth female illiteracy rate remains the lowest in the MENA region; more than half of their young women are illiterate. These staggering figures are, however, inevitably a result of recurrent war in the country rather than rigid societal notions of female expectations. 

The late architect, Hadid, remembers the women of her country being far from uneducated. When asked what was expected of young women and little girls in 1950s Baghdad, Hadid brazenly answers, “to become architects, doctors”. She argues that there exists a misconception about Arab society, “women were very liberated,” she claims, noting that she did not have a single female friend who wasn’t a professional. When quizzed on her mother, Hadid remembers her as “a housewife but very strong and opinionated”, the woman who taught Hadid how to draw. My own grandmother, an Iraqi artist, tells me how highly respected she was in her practice to no lesser degree than male artists in the country. 

Issam Fares Institute, Courtesy of Hufton and Crow

Reminiscing upon her youth, Hadid anecdotally recalls the presence of not only one of the strongest female figures in Arab culture, but one of the most prominent cultural icons in Arab history, Oum Kalthoum, one of whom’s songs she has chosen as a castaway track. Hadid’s father, an intimidating politician, adored Kalthoum’s music. One night, fifteen year old Zaha stayed up to record Kalthoum performing whilst her father was away for business, so that he could listen to the track upon arriving back home. In the 60s, Hadid would come to watch Kalthoum perform in the ruins in Lebanon, no doubt solidifying a great admiration she held for the singer and inspiring the young Hadid to go forth and break certain boundaries of what women were capable of achieving. Years later, Hadid went on to become one of the most prominent cultural icons in not only the Arab world, but within the Western world too, becoming the first woman to be awarded the Pritzker prize in 2004. 

Hadid’s structures are as fluid and as dominating as her wonderfully assertive nature. Much like herself, her work unapologetically takes up space and demands attention. In a male-dominated industry, Hadid emphasised how “very important [it is] that your main idea doesn’t get diluted” through streams of getting interrupted and talked over. She mentioned time and time again that the architectural world was not so fond of her; when asked why she thought this was, she pondered that maybe it was because she didn’t drink with them in the pub, she wasn’t “part of the gang” - that is, the British mostly-male, mostly-white architectural clique. When asked if she felt part of the establishment, she responds, “I’m not outside, but I’m on the edge, I’m dangling there”. “That doesn’t sound like a comfortable position”, podcast host Kirsty Young remarks, inspiring an image of Hadid the trapeze artist, clasped around a hoop dangling dangerously above two sets of conflicting cultures. “No, I quite like it. I’m not against the establishment, I just do what I like,” Hadid refreshingly feels no need to embellish her honest answers. She feels no need to pretend she’s something she’s not. For her sixth piece of music, she chooses Drake’s ‘Hotline Bling’. 

As extraordinary a figure as she may appear, esteemed fame does not come without its side effects. “I’ve had a big share of tough times.  I’m a woman, which is a problem to many people. I’m a foreigner, which is another problem and [I] do work which is not normative”, Hadid discloses. One example of blatant racism within the establishment was thrown her way when Rodri Morgan, who would go on to become the first minister of Wales, described Hadid’s unrealised design for the Cardiff Bay Opera House as akin to “the shrine in Mecca” and there was a “likelihood that a fatwah (a legal opinion on a point of Islamic law) would be issued on the building”. This episode, Hadid claims, stigmatised her practice for a long time afterwards. The so-called Starchitecht remained focused on her goals, though, and stayed true to her principles; “If you can, as an architect, in any way alleviate an oppressive situation, or elevate a culture, then I think that you should.”

Roger Dekker for Vogue Germany October 2007

And inevitably, Hadid faced that question which all female professionals in the limelight seem to have to endure; Ever been tempted to get married? As if women who choose not to get married and bear children are simply fooling themselves, Young tries to pry Hadid open further, “Are you a romantic person?” And in blissful Zaha Hadid fashion, a simple “No.” suffices. 

In a world where “a bossy woman” was, and still very much is an insult, Hadid was no robot, despite seemingly being a presence constructed of steel. She still felt the sting of these remarks. She claimed that she was taken advantage of in the workplace constantly. Sadly, I’m sure this would come as no surprise to female listeners of the podcast. Hadid was, however, determined not to accept her womanhood as a weakness or an obstacle, rather she simply got on with the job at hand. And she did it remarkably well.  

Dalia Al-Dujaili is the Editor-in-Chief of Mxogyny.