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Shangri La Stories

Stories from the Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design

Stories from the Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design


Expressions for A New Day

Sara Mizban dancing in front of the Playhouse at Shangri La, Nowruz, 2023, Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design, Honolulu, Hawaiʻi (Photograph: Elyse Butler, 2023).

“Zan. Zendegi. Azadi” (Woman. Life. Freedom.) was a cry heard throughout the world after the death of Jina Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish Iranian woman, who was detained by the Islamic Republic of Iran's Morality Police for allegedly wearing her hijab incorrectly. Amini’s passing on September 16, 2022, became the catalyst for protests within Iran and around the world standing in solidarity for human rights. With this movement came an outpouring of artistic responses calling for social change and conversations centered on gender equality, the right to choose religious customs, and freedom of expression. Images of women pulling off their mandatory hijab, cutting their hair in public, and dancing in the streets of Iran, profoundly captured the attention of the world.