Certainly one of many artworks in solidarity with Ahoo (Mahla) Daryaei, a doctoral pupil at Tehran’s Azad College who was arrested for stripping right down to her underwear to protest Iran’s Islamic costume code (picture courtesy Hamed Shamloo)
In a current act of defiance, Ahoo (Mahla) Daryaei, a doctoral pupil in French Literature at Azad College’s Science and Analysis department in Tehran, protested the oppressive enforcement of necessary hijab in Iran by stripping right down to her underwear on campus. She had reportedly been harassed by members of the college’s Basij paramilitary group — a faction of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard — who allegedly tore her clothes for not totally complying with the Islamic costume code. In response, Daryaei eliminated her remaining garments, sat on campus grounds, and walked round in her underwear, leaving passersby surprised. She was quickly arrested and reportedly taken to a psychiatric hospital, a frequent technique utilized by the regime towards protesters. Footage of Daryaei’s daring gesture rapidly unfold throughout social media underneath the hashtag #GirlofScienceAndResearch (دختر_علوم_و_تحقیقات#), sparking each nationwide and worldwide dialogue about ladies’s rights in Iran.
Ahoo Daryaei’s protest at Azad College (by way of YouTube, screenshot Hyperallergic)
The hashtag galvanized a flood of creative representations of Daryaei’s defiance, depicting her in highly effective symbolic eventualities: towering over a metropolis teeming with morality police, standing defiantly earlier than a tank, or breaking by means of a wall emblazoned with the Islamic Republic’s flag. These visible portrayals, which have dominated social media and even appeared in graffiti type, parallel different iconic symbols of resistance, such because the “Tank Man” {photograph} taken by Stuart Franklin throughout the Tiananmen Sq. protests of 1989 in China.
This was not an remoted protest. Iranian ladies have lengthy resisted the obligatory hijab, utilizing nonverbal acts to defy the state’s strict costume codes. This motion started years in the past in quieter, subtler varieties: ladies carrying their headscarves loosely, discarding their veils, and expressing dissent by means of refined however highly effective physique language. In 2017, a lady named Vida Movahed took this resistance to the general public stage. Standing on a utility field on Tehran’s busy Enghelab (Revolution) Avenue, she waved a white headband on a stick — a putting picture that captured the essence of Iran’s feminist wrestle and impressed numerous others, later generally known as the “Girls of Revolution Street.” Since then, ladies have carried out inventive acts of defiance with their scarves, twirling them, casting them into the wind, and even burning them. Daryaei’s act of stripping to her underwear continues this pattern. One illustration poignantly captures this connection, depicting Daryaei operating towards a hurdle labeled “freedom” on a monitor, as she receives the enduring white scarf on a stick as a baton from Movahed. These acts embody a bigger wrestle for bodily autonomy, freedom, and the best to self-expression.
A tribute to Ahoo Daryaei impressed by the enduring “Tank Man” {photograph} from the Tiananmen Sq. protests of 1989 (picture used with permission)
An paintings depicting Vida Movahed passing the baton — on this case, an Islamic white scarf — to Ahoo Daryaei (picture used with permission)
What we’re witnessing is a singular type of feminist expression that I name Gestural Feminism, the place the physique itself turns into the instrument and language of resistance. This isn’t merely an act of protest by unusual residents but additionally a marker of protest and feminist artwork in Iran. In 2011, a poignant act of remembrance unfolded in Tehran. Every afternoon, a bunch of ladies, dressed solely in daring crimson, gathered at a busy intersection, marking the spot with their regular presence. This day by day ritual paid tribute to a lady who, earlier than the 1979 Islamic Revolution, had famously stood at that very location, additionally wearing crimson, reportedly awaiting a person she cherished, a show of affection in a metropolis the place such public expressions are actually forbidden. Regardless of going through jeers from passersby, these ladies returned daily for a couple of month, embodying a strong act of resistance and homage by means of their presence.
Mohammad Hosseini et al., Ladies in Crimson (2011), a efficiency at Ferdowsi Sq. in Tehran. (photograph courtesy Saeed Kiaee)
In 2017, dancer and filmmaker Tanin Torabi carried out a slow-motion dance by means of Tehran’s conventional Tajrish Bazaar, capturing the scene in a one-shot movie. Her refined but unconventional bodily actions leaving passersby surprised. That very same 12 months, artist Nastaran Safaei created a strong video, “High Heels,” the place she walked the whole size of Vali Asr (previously Pahlavi) Avenue in her favourite excessive heels. Captured on a hidden GoPro, the video reveals the general public’s misogynistic reactions to her act: the stares, puzzled seems, verbal harassment, and sexually specific catcalls.
In my current e book, Ladies, Artwork, Freedom: Artists and Avenue Politics in Iran, I discover how artists use their craft to problem the regime. Through the Lady, Life, Freedom rebellion of fall 2022 to spring 2023, sparked by the loss of life of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini by the hands of Iran’s morality police after she wore her hijab incorrectly, artist Nasrin Shahbeygi reclaimed public house by rolling by means of the streets of Mashhad, whereas artist Zohreh Solati stood in busy intersections round Tehran and not using a hijab, wearing an outfit made from square-shaped mirror items. This dynamic expression of Gestural Feminism highlights the resilience and artistic spirit of Iran’s creative group in instances of resistance.
Avenue artist typomaniaa‘s tribute to Ahoo Daryaei (image courtesy the artist)
Conventional concepts of the “gestural” in art focus on expressive brushstrokes and the artist’s bodily engagement with the canvas. However in Iran, gestures transcend paint; they contain standing, strolling, and bodily presence as instruments of political expression. In these acts, the physique turns into each artwork and defiance, embodying silent but profound statements towards repression. Past mere protest, they reclaim autonomy over the physique and its actions, usually in environments the place such freedoms are rigorously policed. These gestures, symbolic but deeply rooted in actuality, reshape public understanding of feminism in Iran, increasing it from verbal discourse to a realm of nonverbal, corporeal expression.
This ripple impact resonates not solely within the exchanges between grassroots protest and efficiency artwork but additionally within the visible artworks which have emerged in solidarity with Daryaei and different ladies protesters. Artists and activists worldwide have envisioned her picture, standing proudly in her underwear, usually looming over figures symbolizing regime authorities.
Shifting between spontaneous protests and deliberate efficiency artwork, Gestural Feminism in Iran is greater than mere defiance; it’s a language, an artwork type, and a motion. This gestural language redefines activism, seamlessly mixing it into artwork and demonstrating that typically probably the most highly effective statements want no phrases.
