Abstract

VALDES PINEIRO, Reynier. Against Primordial Identities: The Embodiments of Shirin Neshat in Women of Allah (1993-1997). Estud. Asia Áfr. [online]. 2022, vol.57, n.2, pp.319-353.  Epub June 06, 2022. ISSN 2448-654X.  https://doi.org/10.24201/eaa.v57i2.2750.

Between 1993 and 1997, the Iranian-born artist Shirin Neshat (Qazvin, 1957) produced in the United States the photographic series Women of Allah, with which she gained wide international recognition. In this series, she reflects on the affective and identity universe of Iranian Muslim women who helped defend the nation during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988). Neshat uses her own image to critically embody the cliché of the chador-veiled woman that has obsessed the Western hegemonic media and that conforms to the model of the “virtuous woman” as constructed by the Islamic Republic of Iran’s official discourse. The main objective of this study is to analyze how, using self-representation and Iranian poetry written by women, the artist subverts these models of representation.

Keywords : Shirin Neshat; Women of Allah; contemporary photography; self-representation; orientalism; Iranian poetry; Fatimah.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )