For me it took a lot of time, actions and reflections to choose my Lexicon. I actually sat in front of the screen staring at them for a while. I secretly googled some of them as well. I was really in doubt which one to choose. So, I highlighted Feminism Ethics of Care, Local Scale (vs. International Scale) and Ecologically Literate. At first I decided to combine feminism with local scale (vs. international scale). I started looking up some pictures by googling the world “feminism”. I found a couple of protests from all over the world, some quotes from famous people and some old pieces of newspaper which were from old Iran. The title of these papers were about the first Iranian politician woman, the first feminism movement in Iran and things like that. I came across some protests by women in Iran, but they aren’t as much as internationals’ in number. The reason actually lies under political and social structure of my country.
In the next step. I printed out the pictures and looked at them for a while. Then, I started cutting out the written worlds and signs from banners. All of a sudden, the women became silenced. With no words.
I started thinking how can I related these women to the women of my country… I found them… Woman from South of Iran.. They wear a traditional face mask which is named “Borgheh”. This mask is a form of Islamic hijab which wears more than half of the face. It has two holes for showing eyes. (I have to add that Borgheh is now part of South’s people culture and some people wear it as some sort of jewelry, with some embellishments and handmade fabrics). For my action Borgheh is a symbolic form of silence and femininity.
I then created a Borgheh and placed the silenced pictures on its surface. It seemed that all the women got united. Though they don’t have a voice, they are being heard by other women…
But are they silent? Or the eyes speak a thousand words?
So this action got me thinking about all the heartbreaking abusive stories which revealed recently from the women of my country and all over the globe. The women who got courage to speak up. I struggled a lot, to honest. I decided not to keep going, because I can’t handle this topic with all the cruel which come back to my mind. I thought a lot and I also talked with a couple of my cohorts. I know every small act matters in this regard, but I have to be emotionally prepared for this topic.
I decided to go on with the local scale. I went to the nature to find some inspiration. As I was looking around, something like a stone hit my head. So I looked up and saw a tree with some ball shaped things on it. Still don’t know what it is or whether it is edible, but I decided to pick it. I started photographing and picking flowers or leaves of other plants.
The plants reminded me of a traditional embroidery from Sirjan, a city in Kerman. My mother and father are from Sirjan and I have great memories there. I vividly remember my mother creating “Pateh” by embroidery. So, I decided to create a natural embroidery. I took what I had found in nature to home and placed them on white fabric… That embroidery felt so alive…
I didn’t stop thinking and reflecting and I was thinking how can I show Local Scale vs. International Scale. Suddenly a really recent concern came to my mind which was the value of our currency compared to international currency. I was on doubt to bring the action up or not. Because I don’t want to spread negativity about my country. Then I thought changing the value of our currency is actually impacting our current lives as Iranians, not the values and love we have for our country.
