"Words are never just words, and every hurtful word is a new drop in the waters of discrimination that have grown to surround us and define us as different. Hurtful words are dark, but humans are of no colour; it's about time to drown the wrong standards of beauty."
These are the words Adel Essam and Henar Sherif, who are the co-founders of O-Art-Studio, wrote to tell of their new project, "No Color." The aim of the photography series is to push back against the discrimination that darker-skin women face in Egypt, and the duo held a casting for a photo shoot to create the stunning images.
Using the hashtag #Project_No_Color, they urge people to join in the conversation and share their own stories.
"The whole thing started when Maha Mohammed, the project manager, suggested shedding light on the sufferings of the coloured women in Egypt, who face societal pressure and rejection on many different scales," Essam told Daily News Egypt.
"We listened to some shocking stories of girls who have been abused by their own parents because of their dark skin, a girl who was fired from her work because she cannot represent a big company, a girl who had to break up with her fiancé because his family doesn't approve of her outer appearance, and many other heartbreaking stories that can hardly be believed," he added.
Click through to see how this powerful photo series is shaking perceptions and challenging discrimination.