For Americans, the name Iran conjures certain key images—the Shah, the Revolution of 1979, the hostages, the Ayatollah Khomeini, and black chador-clad women. Worn as part of the Islamic code of hijab, the chador became a kind of visual symbol of the religious fundamentalism that took hold of Iran after the revolution. Filmmaker Robert Adanto’s new documentary Pearls on the Ocean Floor confronts and then strips away the clichés surrounding the chador through interviews with Iranian women artists. As in the fairy tale of the ugly duckling, a beautiful swan emerges from the darkness of this history in the body of work done by these courageous women artists. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Black Swan."
[Image: Parastou Forouhar. From the Swanrider series (2004). Courtesy of RH Gallery.]
[Many thanks to RH Gallery for providing me with the image above and a review copy of the film Pearls on the Ocean Floor.]
