WOMEN, LIFE, FREEDOM
On September 16th 2022, Masa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman died after being arrested by Iran’s ‘morality police’ for wearing her hijab ‘improperly’. During Amini’s funeral on September 17th, crowd gathered chanting the slogan ‘women, life, freedom’ which was adopted across the country and beyond.
For decades, gender inequality and discrimination against women have been legally enshrined in Iran. Under Iran’s Islamic Penal Code, Iranian women’s right are severely restricted, a form of gender apartheid. Women must comply with the Islamic Republic’s mandatory hijab laws from the onset of puberty, and they are unequal in matters of marriage, divorce, custody, inheritance and more.
In solidarity with Iranian women and girls who are courageously demonstrating for their fundamental human rights, at Pedrami Gallery - founded by Iranian born Kathy Pedrami and focused on Middle Eastern artists – we proposed an group art exhibition of the artists Eileen Cohen Sussholz, Wendy Krochmal, Roghayeh Najdi, Nasser Bakhshi, Tarek Shabout and Maryam Najd, using their creative works to demonstrate solidarity with the people of Iran and it serves as a dedication of the bravery of Iranian women and girls. Thus, the artists in this exhibition seek to amplify and expand in Antwerp art scene the voices of those bravely pursuing basic human rights and dignity for women in Iran, by bringing together their artistic expressions, in response to this historical movement.

Curators: Maryam Najd, Kathy Pedrami

Artists: Nasser Bakhshi, Roghayeh Najdi, Maryam Najd, Wendy Krochmal, Eileen Cohen Sussholz, Tarek Shabout