One among 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 gown 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 obligatory 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 gown code. In response, Daryaei eliminated her remaining garments, sat on campus grounds, and walked round in her underwear, leaving passersby shocked. She was quickly arrested and reportedly taken to a psychiatric hospital, a frequent technique utilized by the regime in opposition to protesters. Footage of Daryaei’s daring gesture rapidly unfold throughout social media beneath the hashtag #GirlofScienceAndResearch (دختر_علوم_و_تحقیقات#), sparking each nationwide and worldwide dialogue about girls’s rights in Iran.
Ahoo Daryaei’s protest at Azad College (through 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 a wall emblazoned with the Islamic Republic’s flag. These visible portrayals, which have dominated social media and even appeared in graffiti kind, parallel different iconic symbols of resistance, such because the “Tank Man” {photograph} taken by Stuart Franklin through the Tiananmen Sq. protests of 1989 in China.
This was not an remoted protest. Iranian girls have lengthy resisted the obligatory hijab, utilizing nonverbal acts to defy the state’s strict gown codes. This motion started years in the past in quieter, subtler kinds: girls sporting their headscarves loosely, discarding their veils, and expressing dissent by delicate however highly effective physique language. In 2017, a girl named Vida Movahed took this resistance to the general public stage. Standing on a utility field on Tehran’s busy Enghelab (Revolution) Road, she waved a white headband on a stick — a hanging picture that captured the essence of Iran’s feminist battle and impressed numerous others, later generally known as the “Girls of Revolution Street.” Since then, girls have carried out artistic 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 development. One illustration poignantly captures this connection, depicting Daryaei working towards a hurdle labeled “freedom” on a monitor, as she receives the long-lasting white scarf on a stick as a baton from Movahed. These acts embody a bigger battle for bodily autonomy, freedom, and the precise to self-expression.
A tribute to Ahoo Daryaei impressed by the long-lasting “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 device 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 girls, dressed solely in daring purple, gathered at a busy intersection, marking the spot with their regular presence. This every day ritual paid tribute to a girl who, earlier than the 1979 Islamic Revolution, had famously stood at that very location, additionally wearing purple, reportedly awaiting a person she cherished, a show of affection in a metropolis the place such public expressions are actually forbidden. Regardless of dealing with jeers from passersby, these girls returned every single day for a few month, embodying a strong act of resistance and homage by 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 Tehran’s conventional Tajrish Bazaar, capturing the scene in a one-shot movie. Her delicate but unconventional bodily actions leaving passersby shocked. That very same 12 months, artist Nastaran Safaei created a strong video, “High Heels,” the place she walked the complete size of Vali Asr (previously Pahlavi) Road 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 to be, verbal harassment, and sexually express catcalls.
In my current guide, Ladies, Artwork, Freedom: Artists and Road Politics in Iran, I discover how artists use their craft to problem the regime. Through the Girl, Life, Freedom rebellion of fall 2022 to spring 2023, sparked by the demise of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini by the hands of Iran’s morality police after she wore her hijab incorrectly, artist Nasrin Shahbeygi reclaimed public area by rolling by the streets of Mashhad, whereas artist Zohreh Solati stood in busy intersections round Tehran with no hijab, wearing an outfit product of square-shaped mirror items. This dynamic expression of Gestural Feminism highlights the resilience and artistic spirit of Iran’s creative neighborhood in instances of resistance.
Road 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 in opposition to repression. Past mere protest, they reclaim autonomy over the physique and its actions, typically 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 girls protesters. Artists and activists worldwide have envisioned her picture, standing proudly in her underwear, typically 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 kind, 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.
