To mark International Women’s Day, dozens of French cultural institutions have decorated the facades and interior spaces of their buildings with posters evoking the "Woman, Life, Freedom" protest movement in Iran.
Woman. Life. Freedom. For five months these words have been synonymous with struggle and hope for Iranians who have taken to the streets to fight for their freedom and their rights, risking their lives in the process.
Since the death of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman killed by the Iranian morality police on 16 September, 2022, a citizen uprising quickly swept across Iran and spread to capitals around the world.
Protestors are demanding more freedom, in particular the end of the compulsory wearing of the islamic veil, and profound changes to laws established with the Islamic revolution of 1979.
The Iranian regime has responded with violence, repression and torture. Some of those arrested faced the death sentence.
Over 500 people have been killed during protests according to a report released in January by the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.
Social media has been a major platform for the protest movement, although within Iran it has become too dangerous to express any ideas against the regime. Many celebrities who have spoken out have been arrested, threatened or forced to flee.
Iranian artists in exile and international sympathisers, especially graphic designers, have shown their support by creating images, posters, animated videos or stencils.
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© {{ scope.credits }}One hundred of these posters have been selected and printed to be distributed and displayed on the walls of French art galleries such as the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, and its neighbour, Le Palais de Tokyo. These elegant buildings are in the same street as the Iranian embassy in the French capital's 8th district.
From the Centre Pompidou, Paris's Institute of the Arab World, to museums, theatres and art schools, and cities such as Lille, Toulouse, Lyon and Rouen, the poster rebellion is the art world’s way of showing solidarity.
The artists have taken inspiration from Iranian iconographic culture and calligraphy and have crossed that energy with images of struggle in Cuba in the 1960s, France’s popular uprising in May 1968, and even Japanese mangas.
Many posters feature the recurring image of women cutting their hair or removing their hijabs, symbolic of the uprising both inside and outside Iran. Hair in the form of chains, or brightly burning flames combined with the symbol of a raised fist can be seen in powerful colours underlining the message that women want to break free.
Odile Burluraux, curator of the Museum of Modern Art in Paris and one of the instigators of the project told the Journal du Dimanche on Sunday that an effort like this has not been seen "since the posters that emerged from the Je suis Charlie" movement following the Paris terror attacks in 2015.
The Palais de la Porte Dorée in Paris, home to the Immigration Museum, is one of the venues distributing the posters to any cultural venue that would like to display them as part of the operation, scheduled to continue until the end of March.
The museum is also hosting a special evening on Wednesday with guests such as the Franco-Iranian artist Hanieh Delecroix, traditional dancer Rana Gorgani and singer Ariana Vafadari. There will also be a screening of the film "The Circle" about the lives of Iranian women by Iranian Jafar Panahi, which won the Golden Lion prize at the Venice Film Festival in 2000. The director was released in February after 7 months in Iran’s Evin prison.
