The Iranian artists who oppose Islamic fundamentalism

Iranian women artists and activists are standing up against the dictatorship and the oppression of women's rights.

Arguro Mpozoni

Shirin Neshat is photographed by Cynthia Preston. Rebellious Silence (1994).

“Shame on the Iranian government for being responsible for such a horror…”

“Today Mahsha Amini, a 22-year-old woman, dies in Iran after suffering injuries during detention for wearing an “inappropriate” hijab. Unbelievable!!!! This violence against women claiming their basic human rights must stop. Our hearts go out to the family of this beautiful and innocent young woman,” wrote on her Instagram account the internationally acclaimed Iranian visual artist Sireen Neshat who lives in New York, known primarily for her work in film, video and photography.

Nessat never stops posting about the situation in Iran following the beating to death of 22-year-old Mahsha Amini by the Iranian regime’s so-called “morality police.”

Amnesty International reports that “under the country’s mandatory laws, women and girls – even those under the age of seven – are forced to cover their hair with a headscarf against their will.” Women who do not do so are treated as criminals by the state.

The “morality” police in Iran put the entire female population – 40 million women and girls – under surveillance. These state agents move around the city and are authorised to stop women and examine their dress, meticulously assessing how many strands of hair are showing, the length of their trousers and coats, and the amount of make-up they are wearing. The punishment if a woman is spotted in a public place without a headscarf includes arrest, jail time, a whipping or a fine – all for the “crime” of exercising their right to choose what to wear.

The “morality” police in Iran put the entire female population – 40 million women and girls – under surveillance. These state agents move around the city and are authorised to stop women and examine their dress, meticulously assessing how many strands of hair are showing, the length of their trousers and coats, and the amount of make-up they are wearing.

“Victory to every brave woman fighting against dictatorship and oppression. Power to Iranian women who are leading a potential revolution in their country!!! Victory to every brave woman fighting against dictatorship and oppression. You are the hope for a better future and an inspiration for your people,” Neshat wrote, adding: “One picture says it all… A brave Iranian woman challenging the morals of other women who are trying to deny her basic human rights… the freedom to dress as she wishes… “Women, Life, Freedom”, the slogan heard on the streets of Iran these days suddenly makes so much sense.”

Shirin Neshat, Rapture Series (Women with Writing on Hands), 1999. New Orleans Museum of Art, Museum purchase, 2001.292, © Shirin Neshat, courtesy Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont, Paris

Neshat’s work focuses on the contrasts between Islam and the West, femininity and masculinity, public and private life, antiquity and modernity, bridging the spaces between these themes.

She has repeatedly stated that Iran has undermined basic human rights, particularly since the Islamic Revolution, arguing that the country has turned to creating art that deals with tyranny, dictatorship, oppression and political injustice. “Although I don’t consider myself an activist, I believe that my art – regardless of its nature – is an expression of protest, a cry for humanity,” she says.

Due to the revolution that broke out in her homeland in 1979 and the closing of the border, she was forced to settle permanently in New York City without being able to see her family for 17 years.

Exile and forced separation was Neshat’s greatest trauma, becoming a defining factor in her artistic vision and development.

She thus began to create a series of works that record, in an idiomatic, almost ritualistic rhythm, themes of female identity, art, life between two cultures, the Western perception of the Muslim world, liberation and emancipation.

In 1996 she visited her homeland for the first time in years, where she created Women of Allah, a riveting photographic work, a “leather-style” work in Persian calligraphy that deals with the theme of female exile and the concept of femininity in relation to Islamic fundamentalism.

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Iranian poet Fatme Ektesari, who after appearing at the Gothenburg poetry festival, returned to Iran and was imprisoned in Tehran’s Evin prison, writes about the situation in Iran.

In 2015 she was sentenced to 99 lashes and 11.5 years in prison for crimes against the Iranian government, immoral conduct, and blasphemy. Her sentence includes seven years for “insulting the sacred”, three years for allegedly posting obscene photos online and eighteen months for spreading propaganda critical of the Iranian government.

Her first poetry collection, entitled “Yek bahse feministi ghabl az pokhtane sibzaminiha”was published in 2010. Her publication was terminated when it was discovered that she had filled in censored words by hand before publishing her work. Her Facebook account was hacked and her blog was shut down.

She was editor-in-chief of the postmodern magazine Hamin farad bud, which was shut down after her arrest. Rapper Shahin Najafi, whose music has been banned in Iran, has used some of Ektesari’s poems in his songs.

In January 2016, Ektesari told The Associated Press that she had fled Iran. For security reasons, he declined to give further details.

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The Iranian children’s book author, cartoonist, illustrator and film director Marjane Satrapi, who now resides in France, has been fighting back and getting in trouble with the police since she was a teenager for violating codes of moderate behavior and buying music banned by the regime.

The author of the autobiographical graphic novel “Persepolis” and her family were intimidated by the Muslim fundamentalists who took power in 1979. Her parents were worried that she would have a hard time with the strict new public codes for women. They sent her abroad to study and in 1983 she found herself in Vienna – later returning temporarily to Iran. She studied visual communication and obtained a master’s degree from the Islamic Azad University in Tehran. He has never returned to Iran since he went to France. She fears she might be arrested and imprisoned.

The UK-based Iranian gender equality advocate, Samane Sawadi, wrote on Instagram: “You may have come across people in the past few days saying ‘how hard is it to wear a headscarf?’, ‘it’s not my problem whether I wear a headscarf or not’ or comments like that who see the mandatory hijab only as a head covering and don’t realise that a wide range of rights are lost by the compulsion of the hijab.”

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Poet, writer and interdisciplinary artist Solmaz Naragi, Madana Karimi, an Iranian-born actress living in India, producer and presenter Salome Seyednya and a host of other women (most of whom have closed accounts for their own safety) are posting Masha Amini’s story and women’s protests and activist actions, expressing not only their support but also their belief that “the time for change in Iran has come”.

“People are being killed, shot in Iran. They don’t have access to the internet,” writes on Instagram the Iranian actress who is unwanted in her country, star of Faradi’s About Elly Golshifteh Farahani.

Among the many brave women’s rights defenders who have reacted to Iran’s mandatory headscarf laws is Nasrin Sotunde, a human rights lawyer. In March 2019, she was sentenced to 38 years and six months in prison and 148 lashes after being convicted in two separate, unfair trials.

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According to Amnesty International, turning women and girls who refuse to wear the headscarf into criminals constitutes an extreme form of discrimination. Mandatory headscarf laws violate a multitude of rights, including the rights to equality, privacy and freedom of expression and belief.

In short, these laws degrade women and girls, seeking to strip them of their dignity and self-worth.

In recent years, a growing movement has emerged against Iran’s mandatory headscarf laws, with women and girls taking courageous acts of defiance. They are standing in public spaces, silently waving their headscarves on the ends of poles or sharing videos of themselves walking down the street with their hair free – something we take for granted.

The strength and power of this movement have terrified the Iranian authorities, who have unleashed a brutal crackdown in response. Since January 2018 they have arrested at least 48 women’s rights defenders, including four men. Some people have been tortured and sentenced to imprisonment or flogging after extremely unfair trials.