Anita Guerra's Open Studio

Velo che vola su Tehran, Japanese rice paper, shellac, oil and ink on iron tondo, 23 cm. 2023

Velo che vola su Tehran, Japanese rice paper, shellac, oil and ink on iron tondo, 23 cm. 2023


In Tehran, and elsewhere, women's hair and women's bodies are still seen as the property of men, to be hidden, punished, mistreated or, paradoxically, displayed for their pleasure.
In the West, the image of woman-as-object, a sex symbol, drives many to painful and disfiguring surgical operations to make themselves more "beautiful". Violence in the so-called free world, is self-inflicted! Instead, in Iran, Mahsa Amini and others were tortured and killed just for having expressed the right of every human being: freedom to speak up, to think, and to live. With this tiny tondo, I, too, join my sisters around the world, to wave a veil high above the city of Tehran and proclaim: no hijab, no Kardashians. Let's dress however we please!