For her series ​“Faces and Phases” (2006−11), Muholi cre­ated more than 200 por­traits of South Africa’s les­bian com­mu­nity. The images chal­lenge the stigma sur­round­ing gays and les­bians in South Africa, debunk the com­mon rhetoric that homo­sex­u­al­ity is un-African, and address the pre­pon­der­ance of hate crimes against homo­sex­u­als in her native country.

Bathini is a Zulu expres­sion mean­ing ​‘What are they say­ing?’ in Eng­lish which is the ques­tion that is ever asked when a black les­bian is ​‘cura­tively’ raped and murdered.