Shirin Neshat on the Power Behind the Veil

In an interview with the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Iranian artist Shirin Neshat discusses her photographic work, which she describes as exploring controlled emotions and juxtapositions between darkness and joy, pain and happiness, violence and mysticism. Born in Qazvin, Iran in 1957 and now based in New York, Neshat addresses themes of East versus West, women's condition, tradition versus modernity, and the public-private divide. She challenges Western perceptions of Muslim women, asserting they are strong, explicit, and combative, contrary to the passive and submissive stereotype associated with wearing the veil. Neshat notes that during the Arab revolution, many women protested and fought in the streets. She also comments on the contemporary debate over the burkini, arguing that the veil creates a wall between private and public but also reveals the expressiveness of a controlled body, with eyes or hands visible under the jilbaab becoming powerful and communicative, making women behind the veil erotic and seductive in a way no bikini could match.