For Shirin Neshat, what is happening these days in Iran is similar to the reactions that erupted after the death of George Floyd in the United States. “Our children and our women should not be expendable, their lives matter, their blood counts,” says renowned Iranian visual artist K, commenting on the crowded and bloody demonstrations that erupted after the death of 22-year-old Mahs Amini. Born in 1957, she left her homeland to study in America in 1973. Returning ten years after the Islamic Revolution, she witnessed the transformation her country and the women of Iran underwent under Khomeini’s theocratic regime.

Her reflections on the lives of women were reflected in the photo series “Women of Allah”, which brought her international recognition. The women wear veils and hold weapons, but their faces, arms and legs, the only body parts left uncovered, are covered with lines of feminist poetry written in traditional Persian calligraphy. She sent one of these images to “K” when we asked her to write a chronicle of the struggle of Iranian women against the oppression of the theocratic regime.

She herself is one of the most dynamic voices of the Iranian diaspora that we have met in Greece thanks to Anna Kafetsi and EMST. The permanent exhibition of the museum also includes her work “Mahdokht” (2004), a video installation from the series “Women Without Men”, a film adaptation of the banned novel of the same name by Sarnus Parsipur, which tells the story of five women who are trying to survive in an authoritarian society dominated by men.

“Everything I have done so far is symbolically related to what is happening now,” she tells us from her home in New York, “as the issue of the female body being used as a canvas for the ideological conflicts of Islamic culture.”

The new generation does not want a referendum, they want not just reforms, they want this government to be gone.

In his speech, Nessat said that Iran’s political history since the Islamic Revolution is “embodied” in the lives and figures of women brandishing weapons, covering their bodies or rebelling. Iran has been on fire for ten days. “The seething disillusionment and anger of the world is unleashed. The genie came out of the lamp,” he says.

So is this a turning point in Iranian history? “This is a big question for all of us,” he comments, “after the Islamic Revolution, various, sporadic uprisings occurred from time to time, but in recent years they have become more frequent. I think that’s a big difference, and also a protest rate. The new generation doesn’t want a referendum, they don’t just want reforms, they want this government to be gone. In addition, these protests no longer take place in large cities, but have spread throughout the country. The next few days will be very important.”

As we talk, she tells us that her partner, director Soya Azari, is constantly on the Internet looking for the latest news about the situation in Iran. The Neshat family lives there, and it has been difficult for them to communicate since the Iranian government banned internet access. “For the first time, perhaps internationally, we are seeing such a movement led by women,” he notes, adding that the Iranian government fears that if it “loosens” the hijab rules, it will lose control over the people. “The moment women adopt Western style, (the government) will lose control of society. Once again, the female body becomes their ideological rhetoric, and as long as this situation persists, they remain in power. But now women say that until now religion is practiced inside the house, and not on my body.”

In his new work, Nesat again returns to the theme of the female body, which is the object of all kinds of attacks. It tells the story of a sexually abused Iranian political prisoner and her struggle to survive. Leaving geography out of the equation, the problem is affecting women in every corner of the world.

On the other hand, the situation in Iran concerns not only Iran. “This is a global problem of fighting against those in power, against authoritarian societies, Ukraine is fighting against Russia, against those who are fighting against Trump. This applies to people who live in a regime of oppression and rebellion, and in the case of women who are in the worst position of all, if we do what we think is right and resist, we will by no means lose. After all, we are dealing with the question of tyranny.”