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Art of Protest in Five Acts
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 August 2023
Extract
The world's first encounter with the tragic murder of the 22-year-old Mahsa Amini by Iran's “morality police” was through her image. As millions around the world browsed through news and social media, they were shocked by the image of the unconscious Amini hooked up to ventilators—her punishment for showing some hair through a loosely worn scarf (Fig. 1). The photograph was so influential that a week after its release, its brave photographer, journalist Niloofar Hamedi, was imprisoned. Despite government pressure, artists began reproducing this horrific image. In stylized reiterations, the portrait of Amini was at times coupled with mourning songs or counterrevolutionary music, as in the colorful animation by Belgium-based Iranian artist Niknaz Khalouzadeh that went viral overnight.
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- Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for Iranian Studies
References
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6 Ibid.
7 Statement extracted from the social media platform of a well-known musician whose identity is kept secret for security.
8 In early February 2023 several professors from Tehran's University of Art published letters from high-ranking administrators, which officially terminated or suspended their contracts.
9 Official Instagram account of Black Fish Voice (BFV) Group, @blackfishvoice.
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14 Ibid.
15 Jacques Rancière, Dissensus: On Politics and Aesthetics, trans. Steven Corcoran (London: Continuum, 2010).
16 Commentary by anonymous user on the footage seen on Masih Alinejad's personal Instagram platform. The translation, with slight modification, is mine.
17 For further discussion of these challenges faced by scholars, particularly feminists, see Éléonore Lépinard, Feminist Trouble: Intersectional Politics in Postsecular Times (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2020).
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22 Official Instagram account of Khaneh Cinema (The House of Cinema), @khnecinema. For further information on the demands of politically active artists and the future of the arts in Iran, see the Radio Zamaneh conversation with prominent artists Parastoo Forouhar and Jinoos Taghizadeh, January 31, 2023, https://www.radiozamaneh.com/751659/?tg_rhash=0ceb6994783a68.