After Islamic Revolution happened in Iran in 1979, the process of political, cultural and social transformation
adversely affected women’s rights and freedoms in the private and public spheres. Women’s self-expression
has been constrained and even hindered by forced gender roles in every sphere of life. Shirin
Neshat who is an Iranian artist living in the United States, witnessed changes in the revolution, questioned
the social identity and cultural ties all over and rejected the roles patriarchal thought approved for women
when she returned her country after a break of ten years. She put up her struggle against hegemony on
Iranian women with her works through the concepts including gender inequality, identity, belonging, feminism,
political regime and beliefs. Neshat publicizes socio-political situations of Iranian women, whose
the most basic rights such as the right of choice and the right to enjoy are taken, through the medium of her
art rather than the concept of gender inequality that Western artists mostly deal with. This study, carried out
with qualitative research methods, aims to introduce the artist, to understand her works and to think over
the identity issues of Middle Eastern women that Shirin Neshat becomes a voice for via her series publicly
known as “Women of Allah”.
Keywords: Shirin Neshat, Iran, Gender, Woman, Political