Untitled, from the series The Day I Became a Woman

Islamic Art Now: Contemporary Art of the Middle East
© Newsha Tavakolian, digital courtesy Museum Associates/LACMA
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Untitled, from the series The Day I Became a Woman

Edition: 2/7

2009
Photographs
Inkjet print on Hahnemühle paper
Image: 30 × 37 in. (76.2 × 93.98 cm) Sheet: 30 × 50 1/4 in. (76.2 × 127.64 cm)
Purchased with funds provided by the Farhang Foundation, Fine Arts Council and an anonymous donor (M.2012.142.1)
Not currently on public view

Curator Notes

These two prints (see also M.2012.142.2) from the series The Day I Became a Woman, show Romina, the artist’s niece, before ...
These two prints (see also M.2012.142.2) from the series The Day I Became a Woman, show Romina, the artist’s niece, before and after the modern Iranian commemoration of Jashn-e Taklif (Obligation Ceremony), when young girls must don hijab. To mark the occasion, which takes place at school, they recite prayers and are celebrated by family and friends for attaining the age of “maturity.” They are nine years old. While concerned specifically with the Iranian issue of the government exercising control over the female body by determining what may or may not be shown in public (hijab was banned in 1936 by Reza Shah and made mandatory in 1979 by Imam Khomeini), this pair of images also addresses more universal ideas of women’s bodily autonomy. Newsha Tavakolian is a self-taught photographer and photojournalist who has achieved international recognition through her body of documentary work, which provides sharp insight into contemporary Iranian society.
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