Adornment, Identity and Empowerment: Female Silversmiths in Southern Oman

Throughout the Arabian Peninsula, silversmithing is almost universally identified as a male occupation, although a large proportion of the articles produced are for women. However, there is a relatively unknown, endangered tradition of female silversmithing in the Sultanate of Oman. In this talk, we will share some of our early research findings from an ongoing collaborative project supported by the British Museum, the Royal Ontario Museum and the National Museum of Oman on the last surviving female silversmiths of Dhofar, southern Oman.

Register Here

Mouza Sulaiman Mohamed Al-Wardi is the Director for Collections Department at the National Museum of Oman (NMO) in Muscat, where she has worked since 2009. She played a critical role as Chief Curator in the development of the newly built and completely re-installed NMO, which opened to the public in 2016.

Marcia Dorr served as Advisor to the Omani Government for 25 years and is the co-author of 'The Craft Heritage of Oman', a two-volume book documenting Oman's artisanal heritage. She is currently Chief Editor of English texts for the Oman Across Ages Museum.

Aude Mongiatti is an archaeological scientist in the Department of Scientific Research at the British Museum, where she has been working since 2007. She studies ancient metallurgical technologies and metalworking techniques, mainly using microscopy, radiography and X-ray fluorescence.

Fahmida Suleman is the Curator of Islamic Art and Culture at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in Toronto, Canada. Prior to joining the ROM she was the Curator for the Modern Middle East at the British Museum for ten years and curated the 2011 exhibition, 'Adornment and Identity: Jewellery and Costume from Oman'.