A pair of images commemorates the bread riots that threatened Nasir al-Din Shah’s rule (see also M.2016.138.11).
Filizadeh captures a series of violent interactions across four photographs stitched together referencing the moment in February 1861 when the women of Tehran stormed the palace after the shah’s cavalcade narrowly made it through the crowd. The central scene is staged in front of the citadel where the distraught women clamor for bread while shielding themselves from violence enacted by royal guards, as well as the sheriff (seen in M.2016.138.9), who now wields his baton towards the protestors. The women’s vivid facial expressions encapsulate the range of emotions from hunger and fear to exhaustion, fighting on despite growing weary. The three scenes below address different moments in the conflict where the women engage in ongoing skirmishes with the sheriff as protests raged on, protestors ravaged bakeries for food, and conflict grew in reaction to violence from the royal guards.
