I was born in Tehran but have been living in Australia since 2007. This was taken as the uprisings in Iran were unfolding, following the 2022 death in custody of Mahsa Jina Amini, a Kurdish woman who was arrested by the country’s morality police, igniting protests. This image is part of a bigger series called In Turn, commissioned for A Curve Is a Broken Line, an exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney last year. I wanted to use this platform to respond to what was happening, and what we saw in images emerging from Iran and circulating on social media. One motif was the act of plaiting hair, historically symbolising sisterhood, bonding and resistance. This tradition extends to the Kurdish women’s liberation movement, where as a daily ritual in the mountains, female fighters plait each other’s hair while chanting the slogan “Jin, Jiyan, Azadî” – “Woman, Life, Freedom”. Amini’s Kurdish heritage sparked the Woman, Life, Freedom movement that followed her death, turning hair-plaiting into a symbol across Iran.
