Video, black and white, stereo sound, (0.11.01)

In this work I question the situation of women in contemporary Iranian society.

In this work, I question the situation of women in Iran, who are subjected to sociopolitical constraints imposed by a religious and totalitarian regime. My performance consists of an exhausting repetition of gestures where I put on, take off, and put back on a black veil, symbolizing the suffering and memories associated with the imposition of the hijab and the deprivation of women’s freedom. The video includes a 1979 report on demonstrations for gender equality after the Iranian Revolution, as well as the voice of a woman arrested and handcuffed in 2016 for not complying with the law on mandatory veiling. Although Iranian women represent the majority of university students, they do not have the same rights as men, especially in terms of work, divorce, travel, and inheritance, of which the mandatory wearing of the hijab is a symbol.

 Jean-Paul Fargier, Chroniques en movement, Marseille 2018, Turbulences Video, n°102, 2019 :

“And what about women in this cruel, unjust, seemingly unchangeable world? There are many of them here, expressing their revolt, and that is enough. First and foremost, they must tirelessly voice what oppresses them. One of them, Paryah Vatankhah, repeatedly puts on and takes off her veil in a loop that seeks only to be undone by the successive uprisings carried in a soundtrack of the clamor of demonstrations in Iran against the absolutism of the ayatollahs. Women must be beautiful. Women must be hidden. Let these veils fall quickly and let the time of free faces come.”