Middle East & Africa | Artful dodgers

Iran’s protesters are painting for freedom

Ingenious graffiti artists are changing the visual landscape

Deface portrait of Ayatollah Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini, the first supreme leader of Iran, new painting on the wall of Khwarazmi University Central Building in Karaj, during protest over the death of Mahsa Amini, 22-year old woman who was believed to have been beaten by the country’s morality police for not complying with mandatory dress codes requiring women to wear a hijab. Karaj. Iran November 8, 2022. Photo by SalmPix/ABACAPRESS.COM

At first they tried performance art. Across Iran, young women and men crouched down, heads hanging in submission, arms cuffed to trees or lampposts. When the police began rounding them up, protesters padlocked mannequins bent double to street signs. In sports matches players adopted similar poses when they scored, re-enacting the fate of Khoda Nour, a protester the mullahs’ men tied to a flagpole without food or drink, a glass of water placed before him, just out of reach.

This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Artful dodgers”

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