L’Éphémère Galerie – Comptoir des Voyages presents until June 12, Les Matriarches (The Matriarchs), an exhibition by Nadia Ferroukhi. She writes:
For nearly twenty years, I have travelled the world, seeking out communities where women occupy a central place in social, cultural or family life. Over the course of seventeen reportages carried out across several continents, I have discovered matrilineal societies, communities preserving ancestral traditions, and women engaged in profound transformations of their societies.
Far from the fantasies associated with the term “matriarchy”, these realities are not built on female domination as a mirror image of patriarchy. While patriarchal societies are structured around a concentration of male power, the matrilineal societies I have encountered place greater emphasis on transmission, complementarity of roles and the pursuit of balance. Women often hold an essential place in preserving knowledge, managing resources and passing on cultural heritage, while fully integrating men into social organisation.
With this second volume, the exploration of matrilineal societies continues, but the perspective also broadens to other female realities around the world. I wanted to tell women’s stories in different forms: guardians of ancestral traditions, agents of social change, or women confronting complex practices. In Colombia, Magalis brings solar electricity to her isolated village in the Guajira, allowing children to study after nightfall. From Nepal, where some women still practise fraternal polyandry by marrying several brothers, to Gambia where female genital mutilation remains widely practised despite being banned, to Samburu women’s villages in Kenya refuges created by women who fled male violence and the forest defenders of Cambodia, these reportages bear witness to the diversity of women’s experiences and the challenges they face.
Some traditions are disappearing under the effects of globalisation and new technologies. Others have been profoundly transformed by colonisation and the influence of monotheistic religions, which have often contributed to weakening matrilineal systems. Others still resist, reinvent themselves or emerge anew. My intention is neither to judge nor to idealise, but to document these transformations and preserve the memory of women who, each in their own way, are shaping the future while carrying the legacy of the past.
I am deeply grateful to all those who opened their doors to me, shared their daily lives, their beliefs and their struggles. Through these encounters, I discovered that there are a thousand ways to build a society, and that everywhere, women are often among its most discreet and most essential pillars. A lesson in humanity, balance and possibility.
Nadia Ferroukhi
Photojournalist Nadia Ferroukhi, born of a Czech mother and an Algerian father, grew up between several cultures, with a deeply nomadic spirit. From an early age, she has travelled the world, camera in hand, in search of human stories and fragments of life. Her work has been published in the French and international press and exhibited in galleries and museums.
Multilingual and driven by boundless curiosity, she brings a sensitive and committed gaze to the diversity of the world, giving visibility to those who are too rarely seen and a voice to realities that are often little known.
Through her images, she tells singular stories that enrich our understanding of the world. At a time when borders sometimes close as much in minds as on maps, her work seeks to remind us of the beauty of cultural diversity and the importance of preserving bonds between peoples. For several years, she has been developing long-term photographic projects, with particular attention to the condition of women around the world.
Fascinated by the great women explorers of the 19th century — those pioneers who faced both hostile territories and the prejudices of an era when women did not enjoy the same rights as today (even if the path to equality remains long) — she does not identify with their era, but with their audacity and their determination to bear witness to the world in spite of all obstacles.
In 2008, she founded the association Douniatou to support Ltungai, a Samburu women’s village in Kenya, at the heart of her project Les Matriarches.
Nadia Ferroukhi : Les Matriarches
June 4–13, 2026
L’Éphémère Galerie – Comptoir des Voyages
12 rue Saint-Victor, 75005 Paris
www.comptoirdesvoyages.fr
Opening hours :
June 5–12: 3:00 pm – 6:30 pm
Saturdays June 6 and 13: 11:00 am – 6:30 pm
Closed on Sundays
