- Title
- Untitled, from the series The Day I Became a Woman
- Date Made
- 2009
- Medium
- Inkjet print on Hahnemühle paper
- Dimensions
- Image: 30 × 37 in. (76.2 × 93.98 cm)
Sheet: 30 × 50 1/4 in. (76.2 × 127.64 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.2012.142.1
- Collecting Area
- Art of the Middle East: Contemporary
- Curatorial 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
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.
