Defiant Gaze, Unveiled Truth. She Gave Voice to Silenced Women. 📣
Play & learn about Shirin Neshat's arty refugee experience 🎮
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Back Story
Shirin Neshat is not only a critically acclaimed artist, but she is also a brave activist whose emotive photography criticising Iran’s oppression of women resulted in her being exiled.
Shirin Neshat was born in Iran in 1957 and moved to the USA in 1975 for university. However, in 1979 the Iranian Islamic Revolution occurred, stripping women of their rights. For example, by 1983 women were required by law to wear the veil covering their face known as the Chador. As a result, Shirin Neshat started making reactionary artwork, including her famous piece “Rebellious Silence” which depicts a hijabi woman glaring defiantly at the viewer with a gun barrel between her eyes. Written on the woman’s face is the feminist poem Allegiance with Wakefulness by Tahereh Saffarzadeh which references women being forced to wear the veil. Speaking to the Guardian, Neshat elaborated on the significance of the poem saying, “the written text is the voice of the photograph,”- “It breaks the silence of the still woman.”
Her work has continued to feature themes of tyranny, oppression and women’s lack of ownership over their own bodies. However, as a result of Iran’s conservative government which censors politically rebellious artwork, her work has never been shown in Iran. Additionally, it was unsafe for Neshat to return to Iran, and she was exiled for 11 years, separated from her family.
She has received much critical acclaim, having been named “Artist of the Decade” by the Huffington Post’s G Roger Denson in 2010. Aside from her artwork, she has also been heavily involved in other forms of activism, having arranged a hunger strike to free political prisoners held in Iran. One of these was Jafar Panahi, another Iranian director who was successfully freed.
With the 2022 killing of Mahsa Amini in Iran for not wearing a hijab “properly” shocking the world, the Iranian society’s oppression of women continues to be a prevalent issue. This means that Shirin Neshat’s artwork continues to remain extremely relevant.
References
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/oct/10/veils-banned-iran-mahsa-amini-shirin-neshat-rebellious-silence
https://nmwa.org/art/artists/shirin-neshat/
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2019/nov/25/yoko-ono-and-the-amnesty-art-sale-in-pictures
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/jun/13/shirin-neshat-women-without-men
In this post Hanna highlights the arty refugee experience of Shirin Neshat. She is a citizen journalist on a placement with us organised by Oxford University Career Services. She also organised the micro game to make the journalistic experience interactive.
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