A Gaze through the Veil:

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Chapter Two: Repressed or PowerfulIn this chapter I want to examine her series of photographic work Women of Allah, byexamining how her imagery is perceived by the ‘West’ and if the women whom shefeatures in her work reflect repression or power, I will discuss these topics byanalyzing her use of the veil, weapons and Farsi poetry in her imagery.Neshat was born in Iran in 1957, she moved to America in 1973, where she attendedUniversity and studied fine art. When she was growing up in Iran it was under theleadership of the Shah, but after the revolution of 1979, the leader AyatollahKhomeini came into power and a strict religious fundamentalist regime was imposedin Iran. (Callamard, 2006)This had a major effect on the citizen’s public and privatelives. Khomeini’s regime aimed to bring fundamentalist values to the forefront ofsociety subsequently rejecting Western influences and arguably modernization.Neshat returned to Iran in 1990, after a twelve year absence. The Iran that sheencountered had experienced a major transformation from the one she grew up in. TheGulf war between Iran and Iraq had just ended after eight years. The male populationwas severely depleted and the landscape was now dominated by women wearing theblack chador. (Milani, 2001) The Islamic regime had taken an uncompromising effecton every aspect of the Iranian citizen’s lives. The mandatory veiling of the women ofIran had a clear effect on Neshat, who responded to this change by producing herseries of photographs The Women of Allah.The Women of Allah is a series of black and white portrait photographs of Neshatherself wearing a chador. She is mainly alone or occasionally she will have a child ora man with her. Neshat takes close ups of the body parts which are allowed to beexposed in Iran such as eyes, hands and feet. There is no background, just a blankbackdrop. In some of the photographs Neshat holds a gun or a part of the weapon isfeatured in the photograph in some way. Black Persian calligraphy is printed over thephotographs usually over the parts skin that is exposed; this calligraphy is the poetryof Iranian women poets.
Fig 3: Shirin Neshat, Untitled, 1996.In these images she raises the issues of cultural difference, displaying an image thatreflects her country of origin but while doing so, also raises the subject of the Westernperception of the East. In the essay Themes of Contemporary Art: Visual Art after1980, McDaniel discusses how her work is perceived in the West in relation to her useof the chador.The historic Western stereotype of the exotic and erotic veiledand cloistered Muslim women also embraced the notion of arepressed woman who is too passive and fatalistic to attemptto resist her oppression and needs to be rescued by the West.This perception of the vulnerable and controlled women can be easily assumed fromNeshats imagery but this is a simplification of these images. Neshat may presenttypical stereotypes of Iranian women in the chador but she does not convey passivesubmissive women. They are powerful and rebellious. Neshat states “In a culture likeIran’s, the women have always been more abrasive, more strong, more powerful than
Page 4 and 5: Introduction“In any society, the
Page 6 and 7: Chapter One: The Oppressed and the
Page 8 and 9: fundamentalist values. Khomeini sta
Page 10 and 11: In June 1993, sixty Hezbollahis att
Page 12 and 13: depicted wearing the chador and eve
Page 14 and 15: the Shah and it was also seen as a
Page 16 and 17: Fig.2. Persepolis, Film Still, 2007
Page 20: the men.” (Tenaglia, 2002, p.97)
Page 25 and 26: Chapter Three: Structures of Oppres
Page 27 and 28: One would agree with this viewpoint
Page 29 and 30: oundaries. They pray, beat drums an
Page 31 and 32: Iran. It shows us the separation of
Page 33 and 34: Shirin Neshat’s work deals with i
Page 36 and 37: Reference ListBalaghi, S. (2002)
Page 38: Tenaglia, S. (2002) ‘The Power of

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