Homa Emami Artwork
Armor of Resistance, 2023.
Armor of Resistance, Iran Hangs by a Hair, Raika Khorshidian, Mellon/SAR Postdoctoral Fellow at Institute of Art History, University of Bonn
In July 2023, Emami hung an armour of airy human hair chains on the wall of the Saarland Museum in Germany. This armour is perhaps the most unadorned and modest piece in this museum. Its textile recalls ancient heavy chain mails (jowshan) illustrated in Parthian and Sasanian rock reliefs and the Shāhnāmeh battlefields. In contrast, it is significantly lighter and softer than most armours in history, and, unlike almost all of historical armours, is tailored for women. This chain mail armour has designated the emergence of a new era of shahsavârs (knights) from Iran in 2022: the brave women wearing battle armour riding on their will to freedom and social change.
The weightless suspended armour arouses the audience’s apprehension by raising questions: Can this armour protect the wearer? For how long will the threads of these hair rings interconnect and not disintegrate? Can someone fight with this armour? Fight with a regime that prevailed for four decades by cruelty and fear?
The single strands of hair that made these rings hang delicately in the air and are hard to see lead us to zoom in on the resistance of each Iranian woman. It requires a keen eye. But for many who look at Iran from a distance, this daily resistance has become normal in the wave boom. Considering Emami’s trajectory in documenting everyday life, she might point to the danger that every Iranian woman faces daily. Since September 2022, thousands of women have gone to the streets of Iran without headscarves. Maybe many of them write down in a corner of their diary: I survived today, however, what about tomorrow? The strands of hair connected in this armour are the symbol of women who, despite the return of the Morality Police, the risk of being arrested, charged and suspended from work, being banned from entering public spaces and transportation, being deprived of receiving medical care, banking services, or participating in the university entrance exam, being banned from leaving the country, and sentenced to mandatory psychologists’ visits, resistantly continue to expose their hair to the city’s countless CCTVs. The continuation of the incessant presence of these women in the public space is a bold and sufficient manifestation, with no need for any other verbal expression.
The intentional removal of Hejab stands as one of the most prevalent and impactful acts of resistance by Iranians against the imposition of the Islamic Republic’s force. Understanding the commonality of trauma despite their differences is what binds each of these strands together. The interwoven hair is a flag, a flag that could and is able to unite all groups that wish to free Iran. Women with their hair in Iran confuse and unruffle a dominant power that has no borders to control the private lives of its citizens, no credit to accept international commitments for human rights, and has survived only by threatening and applying coercion. The delicate chain of women’s hair has played the most effective, extensive, and tireless role from the beginning of the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement while many left the stage.
The curl of the friend’s hair is a trap chain / who is not in this chain is out of this story[1] (Saadi’s ghazal, No 47)
In 2022, the hair of women “beat the drums of war” (Moʿezzi Nishāburi, b. 1048-49; d. ca. 1125-27) all over Iran. Despite all the dreams that have not yet come true and the sacrifices of brave humans who were killed, imprisoned, tortured, injured, and the widespread sense of hopelessness and precariousness among Iranians, Iranian women’s hair sheds a ray of hope and a strong will for change. Whenever a woman walks in the streets of Iran without a hejab, she spreads this message in silence, my friend, “even though the night is dark / if you have a strong heart, the sunrise is close[2]” (Hamid Mossadegh).
The full text has been published under the title Armour of Resistance: Iran Hangs by a Hair (Spring 2024), In: AIS (Association for Iranian Studies) Newsletter, Vol. 45, No. 1, 75-86.
[1] هر که در این حلقه نیست فارغ از این ماجراست / سلسلهٔ موی دوست حلقه دام بلاست (English translation by the author)
[2] گر چه شب تاریک است/ دل قوی دار، سحر نزدیک است (English translation by the author)
Armor of Resistance, 2023.
Armor of Resistance, Iran Hangs by a Hair, Raika Khorshidian, Mellon/SAR Postdoctoral Fellow at Institute of Art History, University of Bonn
In July 2023, Emami hung an armour of airy human hair chains on the wall of the Saarland Museum in Germany. This armour is perhaps the most unadorned and modest piece in this museum. Its textile recalls ancient heavy chain mails (jowshan) illustrated in Parthian and Sasanian rock reliefs and the Shāhnāmeh battlefields. In contrast, it is significantly lighter and softer than most armours in history, and, unlike almost all of historical armours, is tailored for women. This chain mail armour has designated the emergence of a new era of shahsavârs (knights) from Iran in 2022: the brave women wearing battle armour riding on their will to freedom and social change.
The weightless suspended armour arouses the audience’s apprehension by raising questions: Can this armour protect the wearer? For how long will the threads of these hair rings interconnect and not disintegrate? Can someone fight with this armour? Fight with a regime that prevailed for four decades by cruelty and fear?
The single strands of hair that made these rings hang delicately in the air and are hard to see lead us to zoom in on the resistance of each Iranian woman. It requires a keen eye. But for many who look at Iran from a distance, this daily resistance has become normal in the wave boom. Considering Emami’s trajectory in documenting everyday life, she might point to the danger that every Iranian woman faces daily. Since September 2022, thousands of women have gone to the streets of Iran without headscarves. Maybe many of them write down in a corner of their diary: I survived today, however, what about tomorrow? The strands of hair connected in this armour are the symbol of women who, despite the return of the Morality Police, the risk of being arrested, charged and suspended from work, being banned from entering public spaces and transportation, being deprived of receiving medical care, banking services, or participating in the university entrance exam, being banned from leaving the country, and sentenced to mandatory psychologists’ visits, resistantly continue to expose their hair to the city’s countless CCTVs. The continuation of the incessant presence of these women in the public space is a bold and sufficient manifestation, with no need for any other verbal expression.
The intentional removal of Hejab stands as one of the most prevalent and impactful acts of resistance by Iranians against the imposition of the Islamic Republic’s force. Understanding the commonality of trauma despite their differences is what binds each of these strands together. The interwoven hair is a flag, a flag that could and is able to unite all groups that wish to free Iran. Women with their hair in Iran confuse and unruffle a dominant power that has no borders to control the private lives of its citizens, no credit to accept international commitments for human rights, and has survived only by threatening and applying coercion. The delicate chain of women’s hair has played the most effective, extensive, and tireless role from the beginning of the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement while many left the stage.
The curl of the friend’s hair is a trap chain / who is not in this chain is out of this story[1] (Saadi’s ghazal, No 47)
In 2022, the hair of women “beat the drums of war” (Moʿezzi Nishāburi, b. 1048-49; d. ca. 1125-27) all over Iran. Despite all the dreams that have not yet come true and the sacrifices of brave humans who were killed, imprisoned, tortured, injured, and the widespread sense of hopelessness and precariousness among Iranians, Iranian women’s hair sheds a ray of hope and a strong will for change. Whenever a woman walks in the streets of Iran without a hejab, she spreads this message in silence, my friend, “even though the night is dark / if you have a strong heart, the sunrise is close[2]” (Hamid Mossadegh).
The full text has been published under the title Armour of Resistance: Iran Hangs by a Hair (Spring 2024), In: AIS (Association for Iranian Studies) Newsletter, Vol. 45, No. 1, 75-86.
[1] هر که در این حلقه نیست فارغ از این ماجراست / سلسلهٔ موی دوست حلقه دام بلاست (English translation by the author)
[2] گر چه شب تاریک است/ دل قوی دار، سحر نزدیک است (English translation by the author)