Iranian-Australian designer turns headscarves into stadium seats

ABC NEWS (Australia)

An Iranian-Australian designer has transformed unwanted headscarves into colourful sports stadium seats in an act of symbolic defiance against female oppression.

Transcript

00:00So, in 2022, we sort of had this very tragic event happening in Iran where Massa Jina Amini

00:12lost her life while she was in the custody of so-called morality police for not wearing

00:18her sort of headscarf correctly. And that really had a very big impact on all the women

00:24in Iran and the diaspora. You know, everyone's sort of wanting to protest in their own way

00:30and say no to the oppression. And that's how sort of the idea for this project came about.

00:35And so, many Iranian women stopped wearing their headscarves in protest and you decided

00:41to start collecting them. How did you go about that?

00:45That's right. So, sort of this rejection of headscarves became very symbolic as part of

00:52that Women Like Freedom movement. And I sort of wanted to really showcase this collective

00:59resilience of the movement and the fact that, you know, these many women really bravely

01:04go on the streets and protest. So, we just sort of sent a call out in social media and

01:11asked, starting from friends, asking our friends and then their friends and friends of friends.

01:16And it sort of had a ripple effect where we asked women to send us their unwanted headscarves.

01:21We provided a postal address, a postbox, and we started getting scarves from all around

01:26the world and from Iran as well.

01:28Yeah. What kind of response did you get? How many people sent you their scarves?

01:33It was brilliant. I think today, like up to today, we have received about 500. It was

01:39490 a while ago and now we've sort of passing the 500 mark. And we are still receiving headscarves,

01:46so we're very much encouraging women around the world and in Iran, if you want to give

01:50us a headscarf, please send it to us. The address is available. But yeah, we've sort

01:55of passed the 500 mark.

01:57And I know you've been careful to point out that this artwork you've created, it's not

02:02protesting the wearing of headscarves per se, but it's more about the lack of choice

02:07that women have about whether or not to wear one. Can you explain that for us?

02:12Yeah, absolutely. We've been very deliberate with sort of our choice of word, first of

02:18all. So we never use the word hijab, for instance, in this case, because the message that we're

02:23trying to convey is really not around criticism or saying that headscarf itself is bad. It's

02:31really the oppression and the lack of wearing it or the lack of banning it also is not good.

02:39So we're really just trying to amplify this collective movement and the resilience that

02:45Iranian women have been showing through their fight for freedom and just making sure that

02:51we're very clear about the fact that the headscarf itself, it's an object. It's a piece of textile.

02:58Those who wear it by choice, you know, it is very liberating if you have the choice

03:03to have it or not. But the message for this project is specifically around that idea of

03:09oppression against women in general.

03:11And you've used these beautiful textiles to create these sports stadium seats, and

03:17they're really instantly recognisable, the shape of them as sports stadium seats. What's

03:22the significance of that?

03:25So we wanted to sort of take these headscarves and turn them into an object, again, which

03:31is symbolising oppression against Iranian women. And a stadium seat, as beautiful as

03:36it is, it is a sign of exclusion in public spaces for Iranian women. So for many years,

03:43you know, we didn't have the choice to go to a public stadium to watch a game. And this

03:47is the past 40 years, post-1979. And so for me and to a lot of Iranian around the world,

03:57this stadium seat is really symbolising that exclusion and that oppression. What we're

04:02trying to do here is take that sort of scarf and turn that symbol of oppression into, you

04:09know, a symbol of empowerment, an object that also symbolises unity and celebration. A stadium

04:15is where people come together to cheer up. And we're really trying to use this sort of

04:19contrast to highlight how resilience can actually move to empowerment and, you know, sort of

04:26strength.

04:27The seats are going on display. What would you like to see happen to them after that?

04:34Well, the North Star for us is really to actually see them in public spaces being used. So, you

04:40know, my my ideal world in the future is that we actually install these in Azadi Stadium,

04:45which is, you know, Tehran's biggest football stadium. So one day, if we can install them

04:50in that stadium, that is, to me, that's absolutely amazing. But we would like to sort of start

04:56installing them in public spaces such as libraries, galleries, cultural institutions, places

05:01where people come together and sort of, you know, share ideas, celebrate and talk about

05:07these topics that we're facing in our society. So I think for us, the next step is to move

05:13to that direction.

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