Soheila Sokhanvari's Rebel Rebel exhibition honors Iran's feminist icons amid ongoing protests

Artist Soheila Sokhanvari has completed her project Rebel Rebel, a series of 28 miniature egg-tempera paintings depicting Iranian feminist icons, which will be exhibited at Barbican's Curve gallery. The exhibition features portraits of women like Roohangiz Saminejad, the first female actor in an Iranian talkie, and Nosrat Partovi, the last unveiled woman in FilmFarsi. Sokhanvari began the work in autumn 2019 after curator Eleanor Nairne approached her, though the idea had been developing for over forty years. The artist left Iran as a teenager in 1978, before the revolution that drastically changed women's rights, and now lives in England. Her paintings aim to counter Western stereotypes of Iranian women and highlight their historical struggles, including exile, imprisonment, and forced repentance after 1979. The project resonates with current protests following the death of Jina Amini on 16 September, who was killed in morality police custody. Sokhanvari references other victims like Samira Esmailzadeh, a 16-year-old beaten to death, and notes how icons like singer Googoosh, banned for 21 years, inspire younger generations. The exhibition seeks to offer alternative histories and imagine different futures for Iran.