If you scroll down on her Instagram account, you will see photos of Marjan Baniasadi wearing a hijab. “The photos in which I’m wearing a headscarf were taken in Iran,” she explains. “I’m by no means religious, but that’s the face you have to show in Iran,” she says. “Hijab is the dress code in Iran.” Or rather “the forced uniform of women”.
Marjan now lives in Munich. Her hair is tied in a loose ponytail, a few strands fall in her face. She wears red lipstick, a shy smile plays on her mouth. “In Iran, you even have to wear the headscarf in your pictures on your Instagram,” because the moral police, the so-called Gascht-e Erschad, also looks at online appearances. “And depending on whether you’re not wearing your headscarf or not wearing it properly, they can arrest you,” says Marjan. Proper wearing means that you must not see a single hair. “But if you’re wearing your headscarf loosely, that means you really don’t want to wear it at all. That’s one tip I can give,” she says. Marjan does not want to accept this situation.
A bird doesn’t want to be caged. Its wings are made for flight. Its beauty and singing can be observed from afar in nature. He wants to be free. Marjan Baniasadi, 29, incorporates the image of the captive bird into her art. With her current exhibition “A singing bird in an open cage”, the artist refers to Iranian women who are geographically distant from their homeland, but who bear the sorrow of the violent current situation in Iran. So also on yourself.
Marjan is originally from Tehran. She holds a Bachelors in Fine Arts from the National College of Arts Lahore. Her major was painting and her minor was sculpture. She has been living in Germany since 2020 and is studying in Munich at the Academy of Fine Arts in the class of Pia Fries. Here she paints, her thoughts are with her family in Iran.
Even at school, Marjan and the other girls questioned the obligation to wear a headscarf. From the age of nine, girls in Iran are considered to be of legal age. This means that from this age they have to wear a headscarf. And it also means that they can already be married. The children are even graded for “discipline, that was a real subject,” says Marjan. And “if you don’t wear a headscarf, you go to hell” – that’s what they were told at school. “We were pissed off,” she says, laughing dryly. The Islamic regime is “trying to brainwash the children, but no one falls for it. Not in the slightest.”
The hijab is the most obvious sign of oppression. However, this is also reflected in the legislation. Women cannot leave the country without their father’s or husband’s permission. You may not divorce or work in a profession without your consent. They receive only half as much of the inheritance as a male relative. Since mid-September, since Mahsa Amini’s death, Iranians have been fighting against this lack of freedom. Young people in particular are protesting against the violent behavior of the Islamic regime, for women’s rights and freedom – including many people Marjan knows. From the country she learns how people shout “Woman, Life, Freedom” or other slogans against the dictatorial system out of their windows at night or write on walls in public places. The police, on the other hand, use “tear gas and bombs, air guns and real guns in residential areas, which scares the locals”. Men also support the movement, are part of the movement. “The police use violence against everyone, including children, including the elderly. They don’t care,” she continues.
Marjan herself had had experience with the vice squad. At the time, she and her family lived in Tehran in a huge building complex. Everyone who didn’t live there was confused at first, didn’t understand where the entrance and exit was. Her plan with her sister was: “If the morality police come one day, we’ll run.” When she was twenty, she and her sister wore a short dress around the property. “And by short I mean,” she points to her knee, “not really short.” Two policemen and a policewoman suddenly came out of a van and yelled at them “as if they wanted to catch criminals”. Then the two women ran away. “If the police pursued real criminals with this discipline, Iran would be the safest country in the world,” she says, laughing.
“People have to realize that what is perceived as Iran in the western world is not the people of Iran,” but the “Islamic regime that occupies our country,” says Marjan. Neither dress code nor government is free choice. “We’re open, we’re educated, we like to party,” she says.
With her art, Marjan wants to show what Iran means to her. The real country of Iran. That doesn’t represent the feeling of oppression, but the feeling of their home. Whenever she was abroad, the reason why she felt at home in her apartment was the Persian carpets she brought from her homeland and “which in a way witnessed and told her story”. In general, carpets are essential in Iran. They “are just as important as refrigerators,” she says. “Every meeting takes place on the carpet, whether it’s eating together, watching TV or talking,” she says. Every Iranian would say the same thing. “We all grew up with it, we all learned to crawl and walk on the carpet.” And: “A carpet like this has a lot to tell.”
In 2016, Marjan Baniasadi started making realistic paintings of Persian carpets.
(Photo: Alessandra Schellnegger)
“A singing bird in an open cage” is the title of Marjan Baniasadi’s current exhibition at Galerie van de Loo.
(Photo: Alessandra Schellnegger)
In 2016 she started making realistic paintings of Persian carpets. Then she was inspired by her structure. She has watched the rugs being woven, “knot by knot, second by second”. She then included this observation in her work and has continued to develop it ever since. She paints animals and plants on canvas and draws lines over them, brushstroke by brushstroke, mirroring the threads of the carpets. It’s very “therapeutic,” she says.
With her works of art, she wants to continue to draw attention to the oppression in Iran and set an example for freedom. When asked what people outside of Iran can do to help, Marjan replies: “Just share information and voices from Iran, just draw attention to the current political situation,” she says. “It’s nice to see this support.” This is how Iranians know that they are not alone. “And the people here are made aware of the incidents and maybe even motivated to find out more or to take action themselves,” she says.
At one point, all Iranians had lost hope. “There was so much pressure, an economic crisis, people became dull.” Now they have hope again. “At last something is happening. Everyone is fed up with the regime. The protests are really serious,” says Marjan. “I think this could be the biggest revolution for women’s rights, for human rights,” she says, her voice sounding determined. “I hope next time I go to Iran I go to a free Iran.” That the cage is finally gone. And all the birds sing.
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