Founded in 2009, the Rawiya Collective are the first all-women photographic collective hailing from the Middle East. The four-person group came together after their paths crossed while covering news stories in the region. As member Tanya Habjouqa explains, the women found that their unplanned meet-ups soon turned into professional relationships and personal friendships. "Both our friendships and work relationships straddle many cities—Amman, Beirut, Jerusalem, Ramallah, Dubai, Cairo—and many major news events," she says. "The Israel war on Lebanon in 2006 was one of the definitive moments that brought a lot of photographers together from our region."

Besides Habjouqa, the Rawiya Collective comprises of Myriam Abdelaziz, Tamara Abdul Hadi, and Laura Boushnak. A range of influences has inspired their love of photography. Hadi has a background in graphic design and moved to Dubai in early 2005, where she began her photography career at Reuters. "Living in a place like Dubai, with all its over the top glitz and opulence on one side, and migrant workers who basically build the city on the other side, really spoke to the documentarian in me," she explains. "It was there that I really understood the importance of documenting social issues, tackling underrepresented communities and misrepresentation in the region."

Habjouqa began her career as a writer, landing her first job at the Jordan Times in Amman. "I still consider myself a writer, and indeed see us as storytellers with various mediums.... not solely as photographers," she says. "My Jordanian and Texan background utilizes a lot of rich stories, narratives, folklore, black humor, and hospitality... As well as darker sides of society that are often misinterpreted by media and utilized to paint entire populations. So for me photography (and storytelling in general) was always a way to push back against stereotypes and explore social issues."

The collective aims to put the viewer's preconceived notions of the region to one side, welcoming them to take a closer look at the human nature of their subjects, inviting them to see more than their subconscious bias may initially observe. Touching on issues of gender, education, occupation and child labour, their work aims to bring about an alternative visual representation of the societies in which they live.

Read more: The Young Women Standing Up to Extremism in the Middle East