ABSTRACT
In the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution (1978–1979), Iran underwent fundamental socio-political transformations which affected art production in the country, leading to the marginalisation of women artists and their relegation to “private” spaces, both socially and artistically. These artists have had to invent new ways to convey meaning whilst under the scrutiny of the regime, resulting in the emergence of a different and subtle feminist art, highly couched in metaphor and allegory, and waged on the battlefield of women's bodies. In the West, their works are often subjected to reductive interpretations and a predetermined vocabulary, which undermine their message and scope. The Feminism found in these works, thus, lies in the act of rejecting patriarchal Iranian culture's feminine ideal as well as Western agendas and stereotypes, to undermine known epistemological structures and offer a new understanding of the feminine. This chapter will examine the impact of these developments and their ramifications on curating the works of contemporary Iranian women artists and proposes the need for an alternative curatorial space of feminine sensibility, away from the patriarchal centre and the Western periphery, where feminine alterity can speak in its own language and on its own terms.
