Shirin+Neshat,+Women+of+Allah+Series



Title: //Women of Allah series// Artist: Shirin Neshat Date: 1993-1997 Period: Contemporary Country of Origin: United States Cultural/Ethnic Affiliation: Islamic Medium: Black & White Photography
 * Artwork Identification **


 * Introduction **

 Born in Iran in 1957, Shirin Neshat has lived in America since 1974 and currently lives in New York City. As a visual feminist artist, Shirin Neshat works with the representation of Middle Eastern women in black and white photographs. Because of the 1979 Iranian Revolution she did not visit her mother country until 1990 and since 1996 she is banned from even visiting Iran. Her works mainly explore gender issues in the Islamic world, particularly the various dimensions of women’s experience in contemporary Islamic society. The Iranian national identity in the twenty-first century is deeply rooted in the past and these women cannot ignore their cultural identities. Neshat believes that the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran led many Iranian women to become “brainwashed and submissive.” One of the themes of Neshat is to show how the compulsory veiling law in 1983 shows the power of Islamic laws placed significant limitations on Iranian women both in private and public domains.  Neshat is the fourth of five children of wealthy parents, brought up in the religious town of Qazvin in north-western Iran. Neshat's father was a physician and her mother a homemaker. Neshat’s father encouraged each of his daughters to “be an individual, to take risks, to learn, to see the world", and he sent his daughters as well as his sons to college to receive their higher education. Through her grandparents, Neshat learned traditional religious value (//Danto, Arthur, & Abromovie, 2010//). Neshat left Iran to study art in Los Angeles at about the time that the Iranian Revolution occurred. As an effect of the political restructuring, after the revolution her father, who had been financially secure and about to retire, was left without benefits and a meager salary (//Graham-Brown, 1988, p.1883//). Once the revolution was over and the society was restructured as a traditional Islamic nation, her family was no longer able to enjoy the comfortable life to which they had grown accustomed. About a year after the revolution, Neshat moved to the San Francisco Bay area and began studying at Dominican College. Eventually, she enrolled in UC Berkeley and completed her BA, MA, and MFA.


 * Descriptive Analysis **

 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. The cropped images of women’s body parts adorned with organic forms while holding weapons seem to cause confusion with viewers. The persistent and repetitive use of visual elements that demonstrate the stereotype of the Middle Eastern woman as violent and old-fashioned, help portray the women as inferior. Neshat started her art career with photography in the early 1990s, and her photo-series //Women of Allah// (1993-97) became particularly famous. In that series she explores the notion of femininity in relation to male authority and Islamic fundamentalism in her home country. 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 drama.

 Neshat’s //Women of Allah// series was the artistic result of her visit to a country transformed by Islamic fundamentalism. Although Neshat claims that her //Women of Allah// series is not about her, she admits that “it has evolved around my personal interest in coming to terms with the ‘new’ Iran, to understand ideas, behind Islamic fundamentalism, and to reconnect with my lost past.” (//Bertucci,1997, p. 84-87.)// The photographs in this series enables Neshat to emulate the Iranian Muslim women who during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war became important elements of propaganda and the moral aids in support of the country’s resistance against foreign assault and continue to serve as such in remembrances of that war. This series was made after Neshat’s visit to Iran in 1990, includes self-portraits of the artist, and all female subjects are clad in chador, hold guns and rifles, and feature bodies adorned with calligraphy in the Farsi language. Neshat’s photographs of the Iranian women pertain to the emergence of a new era in Iranian history following the end of the Pahlavi dynasty, an era marked by an emphasis on the distinction between the self and other, and the culture, sexual, and physical division brought by an Islamic government (//Graham-Brown, 1988, p.1925//).

 Within these images, four distinctive and incongruent elements occupy the limited space, and they combine within the framework to create a threatening message: the softness of the veil’s fabric, the rigidity of the gun’s metal, the fluidity of the black ink, and the young women’s flesh appear to coexist amidst physical and material differences. The written calligraphy invokes the Iranian woman’s silence and her inability to have a voice. Because Neshat’s residence in the West allows her the freedom of expression, she covers the entire visible surface of her female figure with her chosen words. However, Neshat’s chosen words are in total compliance with the militancy of the veiled Iranian women in that they are poetic words supporting Iranian martyrs of the Iran-Iraq war.


 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Formal and Contextual Analysis **

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> Before the Islamic Revolution the government under the Shah tried to promote secular culture. The veil was frowned upon and even outlawed. That was the environment Neshat grew up in, but during the Islamic Revolution women began wearing the veil not only out of religious devotion but also as a political symbol against the Shah’s rule and therefore a form of empowerment. Shirin uses photography as a means of self-expression while demonstrating the characteristic of Iranian society, culture, and traditions. She uses the theme of separation both physically and metaphorically to place herself in a superior position rather than her female counterparts who live inside Iranian borders. All of the images of the //Women of Allah// series fall in the same theme of bound, restricted, silenced, old-fashioned, and violent Muslim women. Neshat uses photography to convince her audience that they are indeed looking at a specific reality (//Haeri, 1980, p. 214//). That within each Iranian Muslim woman resides a negative image. She develops her concepts by first identifying the specific points she wants the viewer to understand concerning her subjects. She often crops images, and enlarges them because she prefers to work in large formats. In Islam a woman's body has been historically a type of battleground for various kinds of rhetoric and political ideology. A culture and its identity can be understood from the status and circumstances of its women, such as the roles they play in the society, the rights they enjoy or don't, and the dress codes to which they adhere. That is why Neshat has chosen to explore Muslim woman because of the intense paradoxical identity. Each of her images are constructed to magnify contradiction. The traditionally feminine traits such as beauty and innocence on one hand and cruelty, violence, and hatred on the other coexist within the complex structure of Islam itself. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> Many of her photographs are actually mixed-media pieces of silver gelatin with ink. In the photograph she covers parts of the female body that according to Islamic regulation are not allowed to be seen in public such as face, hands and feet—with abstract designs and Persian calligraphy. Neshat is interested in the tradition of tattooing in the Middle Eastern and Indian cultures. So when she composed her images that deal with the body of a Muslim woman, inscription on the skin seemed appropriate. The words that are written on the women skin, demonstrate the literal and symbolic voice of women whose sexuality and individualism have been obliterated in public by the veil. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Shirin’s work explores the experience of being a woman in Islam. She puts her trust in the women's words who have lived and experienced the life behind the veil.All of her images concentrate on the body, the veil, and the text. The series, "Women of Allah," visualizes personal and public lives of women living under extreme religious commitment. The poetry in this series is by Tahereh Saffarzadeh, who expresses the strong conviction many Iranian women have for Islam. Tahereh was an Iranian poet, writer, translator and prominent university professor.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">These Iranian women feel liberated from the previous class structure and certain social constraints by the Islamic revolution. According to Iranian women that were involved in the Islamic revolution, it is only within the context of Islam that a woman is truly equal to a man. By concealing a woman's sexuality, the veil prevents her from becoming a sexual object. There is a great deal of self-contradiction in strong and proud women, participating in the revolutionary process, willing to go to war with rifles across their backs, and yet still endure the religious laws that place constraints on their public lives. Shirin’s approach has always been to create a conceptual dialogue that visually identifies and explores some of the negative and stereotypical characterizations of Muslims, in particular women. As well as how these women’s faith both empowers them and impedes them. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> Neshat’s series explores the relation between a Muslim woman and the spaces that she inhabits. The individual-oriented western democratic society strive to eliminate sexual difference and boundaries, whereas the traditional Islamic culture, men and women, hold distinct places and are meant to come together to create a cohesive whole (//Bertucci, 85//). Men ultimately dominate the public space and set all rules of social behavior that satisfy their need. Women, exist in private space, follow the rules, and in essence embody the collective values of their society. Since a woman represents the domestic, personal domain, she carries with her an individuality disruptive to the social order. As she crosses into the public space she conforms by wearing the veil, removing all signs of sexuality and individuality, and the willingness to segregate herself.


 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Personal Interpretations **

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> Neshat’s mysterious veiled Muslim Iranian women photographs have captured my attention since the first time viewing them. Her work takes on the personality of the woman she wants to portray and how it related to her identity as a woman. How a viewer, Iranian or Westerner, perceives the work depends to a great extent on his or her personal background and experience with Islamic cultures. Her work touches on the most controversial, most delicate issues. Many people assume because her subject is based on Islamic cultures, she is supporting the Iranian government, but that is not necessary true, she is just trying to give these women a voice. Throughout much of Art History, in many cultures, women have been depicted by men. I find Shirin’s work remarkable because it explores the identity of women in relation to society.


 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">References **

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Basow, S. A. (1992). Gender stereotypes and roles, 3rd ed. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company.

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Berryman-Fink, C., Ballard-Reisch, D., & Newman, L. H. (1993). Communication and sex role socialization. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc.

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Bertucci, Linda. “Shirin Neshat: Eastern Values.” //Flash Art// 30.197 (1997): 84-87.

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Brooks, Geraldine. //Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women// (New York: Double Day, 1995).

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Danto, Arthur, and Marina Abromovic. //Shirin Neshat//. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, 2010.

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Graham-Brown, Sarah. //Images of Women: The Portrayal of Women in Photography of the Middle-East, 1860-1950.// New York: Columbia University Press, 1988.

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Haslett, B., Geis, F. L., & Carter, M. R. (1992). The organizational woman: Power and paradox. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Haeri, Shahla. “Women, Law, and Social Change in Iran.” //In Women in Contemporary Muslim Societies//, edited by Jane Smith, 209-234. New Jersey: Associated University Press, 1980.

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Naeema, Asma. “Shirin Neshat’s Women of Allah Series: The Differentiation and Degeneracy of Islam.” //Chicago Art Journal// 14 (2004): 2-17.

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Spence, J. T. & Helmreich, R. L. (1980). Masculine instrumentality and feminine expressiveness: Their relationship with sex role attitudes and behaviors. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 5, 147-163.

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Zabel, Igor. “Women in Black.” //Art Journal// 60.4 (Winter 2001): 1-16.


 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Gender Unit Plan **


 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Title: **<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> Gender Roles and Stereotypes: What defines us?
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Grade Level: **<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> High School
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Time: **<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> 1 ½ weeks


 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Key Concepts: **


 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Gender Roles and Identity: **<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> In Shirin Neshat’s //Women of Allah series// the artist created an anatomical representation of herself through the lens of Iranian culture gender roles. These roles, however, are not only found in Iran, but are also found all over the world. In many ways, how you act, dress, and interact with those around you have been shaped throughout your lives by your societal gender roles and expectations.


 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Gender: **<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> An individual’s perception of male or female. Students will describe, identify, discuss how gender is depicted in artworks of the past and present.


 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Learning Activities **


 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Lesson 1: Reflective Journal and Gender Role Research, **<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">2 Class Periods

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Students will look at Shirin Neshat’s //Women of Allah series//. They will watch the YouTube video **“Women of Allah-Shirin Neshat”** of her work <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[]

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; text-decoration: none;">Students will also watch this video **<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Why I Wear The Hijab - Muslim Women Speak ** <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; text-decoration: none;">to help them understand women who actually wear the veil and why they choose to do so. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[]

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Students will write a reflective journal on what they believe to be the meaning of her work. What it is about? Students must support their answer with what they see in the work and their personal knowledge/experience. When finished writing, student volunteers read their responses and begin class discussion.

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Students get in groups to share and talk about different types of oppression and gender discrimination to build theories for their artwork project and brainstorming symbols to represent it. Expanding on the issues and exploring other issues that may be happening in different cultures around the world by bouncing ideas off of their peers. One member from each group will be asked to record the topics discussed.
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Group Brainstorm **

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Students will then read the article, **“Women in Islam: Beyond the Stereotypes,”** and they will answer the following questions.
 * 1) <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">How are women and men portrayed differently in Islam?
 * 2) <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">What are the sources of our ideas on what is and is not gender appropriate?
 * 3) <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">How are boys and girls treated different from one another? And does it matter what culture they live in?
 * 4) <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">What is your personal understanding of your gender’s roles?
 * 5) <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">What is your society’s expectation of your gender’s roles?
 * 6) <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Are there any conflicts between your understanding and your society’s expectation of your gender’s role?

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Article: http://discover.islamway.net/articles.php?article_id=16


 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Lesson 2: Anatomical Mixed Media Self-Portrait, **<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> 5 Class Periods

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Students will be shown and compare four self-portraits done by popular artists of today. Students will be asked what type of colors they used, physical characteristics, gender, style, culture, time period, feelings, emotions, etc. Why does the artists choose to include/depict these elements? How does the painting, personally make you feel? The four paintings that will be shown are: Van Gogh //Self-Portrait// 1887, Netherlands, Raharuhi Rukupo //Self-Portrait in the House Te Hau-ki-Turanga// Maori, New Zealand, Frida Kahlo //The Broken Column// 1944 Mexican, Zhang Jie //Self-Portrait// 2006 Chinese.

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Students will create an anatomical self-portrait that highlights and reflects on gender roles and stereotypes for their respective gender. Students should think about what pose, angle, male and female body parts, and common symbols that they would use to express the roles of men and women in American society and if their personal understanding of gender roles conflicts with the societal expectation. Before students begin, they will brainstorm some ideas about what they want to include in their piece to show their identity. Some questions they need to answer: What elements will you include to display your personality? How will you portray the image of gender? Students should begin with a pencil sketch of their idea; students will create their piece using mixed media materials.

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Assessment: <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Composition /20 <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Used elements to display Personality /15 <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Portrayed the issue of gender /15 <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Total: /50


 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Lesson 3: Artist Statement and Critique, **<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> 1 Class Period

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The final activity of this project is that students will create a one paragraph artist’s statement explaining the symbolism and design choices that they have made. Following this, students will critique the work of three other students in the class with one paragraph comment.

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Reflective Journal: Answer is supported by what you see in the work and personal knowledge. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Gender Role Research: Appropriate response to the six questions supported by data from the knowledge/experience. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Anatomical Self-Portrait: Pencil sketch as well as a mixed media self portrait reflecting gender roles. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Artist Statement: A one paragraph statement explaining symbolism and design choices for their portrait. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">3 Student Critiques: Three, one paragraph constructive critiques of their self-portraits.
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Assessment: **