Female Visage- State of Women in Iran: A Visual Story

Female Visage- State of Women in Iran: A Visual Story

An exhibition centered around the representation of women in today’s Iran. Minoo S. Amini’s artworks address issues such as gender inequality, violence against women, and systemic oppression.

Gallery

Exhibition Dates: April 21, 2025 - May 15, 2025
Opening Reception: Thursday, April 24, 6 pm - 8 pm

Artist Statement

In an age where women are celebrating their achievements and raising awareness about equity worldwide, Iranian women are challenging religious dress codes and practices that undermine their human rights. It is common for security and intelligence forces in Iran to arrest and jail women for violating the religious mandatory “Sharia Hijab”. My paintings are based on the “women, life, and freedom” theme adopted in Iran almost four years ago in the aftermath of Mahsa Amini's death at the hands of the morality police in Tehran on September 16, 2022.

The tragedy outraged the public followed by nationwide protests. Women turned on the streets, waving, burning their Hijabs, and cutting their hair to oppose dictatorship rules and demand their rights in abolishing forced head scarf, allowing self-expression, and ending gender inequalities or apartheid which are defined as the economic and social sexual discrimination against individuals because of their gender or sex.

In the months following Mahsa’s death, more than 300 protesters were killed, and thousands were arrested among them women and children and at least 51 journalists. Pursuing their arrests, many of the protestors were subjugated to sexual harassment, assault, and rape at the hands of police officers, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) officers, prison officials, and prison interrogators. Those prosecuted faced charges punishable by death.

For this exhibition, I’m using narrative art to tell a visual story of the sentiment of Iranian women since the beginning of the Islamic Republic rule in 1979.  Gender inequality and apartheid became the law of the land by the regime to force compulsory veiling laws, which apply to girls as young as seven, and violation of rights to equality, freedom of expression, religion, and belief. Women's resistance to the Islamic apartheid regime for a free and democratic Iran has been demonstrated in the uprisings of 2009, and 2012, 2014, 2022 and is still ongoing through the present time in 2025.

Minoo Safai-Amini is a contemporary artist whose work centers around the representation of women in today’s Iran through an artistic lens for promoting open exploration and expression. She examines different societal issues of gender inequality, violence against women, and systemic oppression in Iran, a subject of debate and scrutiny both in the Middle East and throughout the Islamic world.

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