Shirin Neshat
Shirin Neshat, Irani Photographer based in New York City, originally from Iran in 1974 to study in Los Angeles. Neshat returned to Iran in 1990, eleven years after the Islamic Revolution, and she was shocked by seeing the condition of the country then. Neshat works in photography, video, film, and performance, often addressing the theme of the alienation of women in repressed Muslim societies.
Shirin Neshat’s Women of Allah series (1993-97) is comprised of four photographs. Each of these photographs depicts an image of a veiled, tattooed, and armed Muslim woman.
Women was considered inferior as with the stereotype of the Middle East women as violent and old-fashioned created by the repetitive use of visual elements. In the series cropped images of women’s body parts holding weapons seem to cause confusion with viewers. …show more content…
The images are portraits of women that are overlaid by Persian calligraphy and they refer to the contrast she experienced between the traditional society she was raised in and the modern society evolving after the Iranian Revolution. In her art, she resists stereotypes – of both women and representations of Islam. Instead, her works explores all the complex social forces shaping Muslim women’s identity. Many of her photographs are actually mixed-media pieces of silver gelatin with ink. The calligraphy is Persian poetry about themes such as exile, identity, femininity and martyrdom. Neshat’s work revolves around concept, she has always been inspired by photojournalism and she feels that photography works best with her topics, conveying realism, immediacy, and a sense of