For me as cough is not a normal object is just a sign of oppression. It reminds me an opportunity three years I wear something that I hated, right? But at the same time, it's the sign of hope. I'm going to go home someday I'm gonna see my parents someday, right
2022 has been an eventful and violent time in Iran. Mass protests erupted this year sparked in part by the death of a 22 year old woman in police custody. The United Nations Commission for Human Rights has called the Iranian regime's sometimes deadly response to the protests, a critical situation. Many Iranians who have fled their country, including artists and activists see this as a time to promote political change. This is random acts of knowledge presented by Heartland Community College. I'm your host, Steve fast. Today we are speaking with two Iranian siblings who hoped to spread the word of the unrest in their home country through art and activism.
I am Shahrbanoo Hamzeh. I'm the heartland gallery coordinator. I put together this show. But it has its roots in another show that we had an agile makalah gallery last year, the name of this show change to be woman life freedom, the motto of Iranian movement revolution, I should say. But the name last year was being a woman. And it was like talking about what does it mean to be a woman under dictatorship and how the life of a woman is, but as a life of a woman change our short change to
Hello, my name is Ali Reza Hamzeh, I'm Shahrbanoo's brother. My role in this exhibition is kind of like a PR vendor role from an early age. Basically, I have been involved in politics. And right now I'm studying a PhD in finance at the University of Texas at Dallas, I happen to have two sisters who are artists. So that's, that's how it works right now. We try to as a family to help the movement in any way we can. Right now I'm trying to raise awareness of other religion and like this show is actually a very good opportunity for me to be able to show what's happening, especially to the my American friends in Texas, and here with you.
So if you ever knew you mentioned the original exhibit that was at Harlem community college, and for our listeners, you can go and listen to an interview about that exhibit that will have connected to this. But briefly kind of describe what that exhibit was. And maybe tell us a little bit about what's changed. That show
is lunch just very close to my heart. That's just a very short I've heard to get there when I got my job at Heartland Community College. And there's a reason for that, like, in my own practice, I was working about human rights in Iran. And then when I had the job, I realized, okay, I can just actually amplify the voice and like, bring other people to talk about the same issue. And that was great. Then I put an open call Ukrainian women, most of them live in Iran, some of them a student in Europe, and to living in the US, got back to me, and we put the show together. Like after like curating the pieces, I have ended up having 50 women from Iran, that they have pieces in our show, that was a great show. And each of them talked about being a woman in their own way. And it was very interesting. Like we had many, many different view. And some of them actually was talking about like normal life in Iran and kind of made them in different groups. At the time, you could see how the pieces are indirect. And that's what happened under the dictatorship, right? They have to say the tank, but not say it at the same time. And the show was kind of captured in a way that you weren't in and after a few minutes, it gets heavier and heavier when you get to read a statement. Like from the very simple one, like the one that said, in my country, there is no street in the name of a woman and all of them are men. And from the one that was talking about, yeah, there was a girl that like buried alive like for all of them, then you get to read them it got heavier and heavier. But there was a layer of beauty. And I really enjoyed that depth that you can go and see just a few actual beautiful picture and come out or us spend the time and like interact with the show and see hear and feel what's going on. There was the show at the time and that was great and we decided to make a traveling show out of it and go other places and bring that message that was working very well in Heartland Community College in our gallery that bring The message to other people is saw, that's a great opportunity. I actually started working on that since then, at the time, the thing I could do, I went to classes, I think, almost 10 classes and talk to the students. And that was interesting for me, like many of the questions showed how much people don't know about us. And I said, Okay, that's it, I want to bring awareness. And I worked under Find places, this gallery, the mag gallery at Dallas finally gave us the opportunity, and we are going to use that. But I think that the thing I was not aware at the time was like everyone is doing same exact thing. Like in their own way, they were working for the same cause many, many people, like I can say, the whole 80 million inside the country and the whole Iranian diaspora everyone is doing something, and today that I'm talking to you, like, it's different. Everyone is industry, and the voice is a heard and I'm so glad. But I'm gonna continue working for the cause. I'm hopeful more than ever, that we get to have a normal life, we get to have a normal government. And everyone's effort is going to have the result. And that's what I can do.
So our is, so you're trying to help spread the word sounds like that's kind of part of your specialty. What is it that you say kind of in your pitch to try to talk to other venues like the one in Dallas and others? What is it that you are saying to convince them to say check out this exhibit and its message that has been resonating with people?
Well, to be honest, actually, it's a little bit hard, like one part of this that I need to add, like you're for instance, like in the in the process of like talking about the revolution that is going on in Iran that was not being called evolution. But people in the streets of Iran started calling it a revolution. They said do not call it protests anymore. This is a revolution. That's their slogan. And it rhymes in Persian, but not in English, it's been very hard to ask the media to pay attention to the fact that the something's going on or runs. I've been to the United States for five years. And like, I kind of understand a little bit because of the fact that the United States like so far away from the rest of the world, maybe because language is English, it's currencies dollar. So they don't need to pay attention to the rest of the wars that much. So I understand that part. But I try different methods based on the person basically, this happens on so many different levels. In my personal life at university, I try to speak to the person at the moment. And basically, in the words of like Saudi, a Persian poet 100 years ago, human beings are from the same essence of soul. And that's what we have to understand and the fact that if someone is in pain, we are all in pain. And we have to pay attention. And if there was injustice, somewhere, there was injustice everywhere. And we have to realize that that part is a little bit harder to talk about. But like there's this part that I also focus on, that I think makes people pay more attention is that you can actually do something and that doesn't need to be a really big step. Or you don't need to like spend like seven days a week like we do 24/7, like on the social media trying to talk or like reshare posts or I don't know, talk to politicians, talk to the media, you don't need to do that as an American, doing whatever. Just raising awareness. That's the most important part. And that's what Iranian people have been saying from the beginning. There was a fun fact here. So like the Islamic Republic has made a lot of Iranians leave their home country. And now we are paid for them. Because there's so many Iranians outside Iran, they cannot basically control the narrative anymore. They were able to control the narrative before. And so by helping us raise awareness by helping us share the message, you can help, because we have not been heard for so many years. And we've been saying the same things. And our government has been doing the exact same thing. So that's funny and sad at the same time. But this time, because of the fact that we have become so united, the Iranian people inside and outside Iran are now united and focused on one solution, which is their revolution. That's another thing that like people outside Iran, say as a translation of the things that people say in Iran is that one solution to revolution.
You mentioned how a lot of Americans we are across the ocean in two ways from a lot of the rest of the world. So I think Americans don't tend to think about the interconnectivity of things international but A couple of years ago, a lot of American politics and a lot of American activism was able to galvanize around the death of George Floyd and a few others, very similar to what you're talking about. The concern was police violence against black people, which had not really changed a lot. But there was one incident that became highly publicized, and then a few others that were just as shocking. And in Iran, I know that in the periods between inception of of sharp news first show and what we have now, there have been instance, I wonder if you could talk about how that maybe has more resonance within Iran and within with the Iranians, in trying to focus some of the attention on these issues, especially violence against women,
what you just mentioned, the fact that, like, there was a spark, because massage, you know, I mean, he was a normal person, like in all aspects of her life. She was just a normal girl. So everybody could sympathize with her. And it's like a wake up call for everybody would like one of the slogans that people say in Iran, they say, if we do not become united, we will die one by one. That's the understanding of everybody in Iran right now. That they will come for you, they will come for you, no matter how normal you are, no matter how a political you are, no matter how you say, Okay, I'm living my life. I don't I don't talk about the regime. I don't talk about anything, but they will come for you. Just like the downing of the Ukrainian flight. Those people were like some of the most normal people in Iran, they were just traveling to Canada, some of our Canadian citizens. Some of them were Canadian, like permanent residents. And some of them were just Iranian students. But most of them were Iranian before they came back to Iran, they probably were able to do that, because they were mostly apolitical. Because if you are like Siobhan and I, you cannot easily go back. So mesalamine was the moment that all Iranians felt like they will come for you. And it doesn't matter who you are. They would even kill people who were religious and think exactly the same way as them just to control the power. So there was something that you need to know like, it was not like Masami was unveiled completely. She was just so her headscarf was just like slipping a little bit back, maybe like uncovering like 10% of her hair. You see, not that it matters. But you should have the ability to choose whatever you want to wear. Like, I understand that, you have to understand that like this was a 10% deviation from their from their Islamic law, it was not like a complete opposition. So you don't need to be completely opposed to them to get killed in a van in a city 800 miles from your home. For people
that might not know that full story. That was her crime. And she was killed as a result of the subsequent events from when they confronted her for having part of her head uncovered.
Yep, exactly. So that's one part. The realization that, well, the government is gonna come for me as well for my son for my daughter, for my husband, for my wife, for my mother for for myself. So that's a one part. And the other part is that they random people in the past 43 years, they have tried so in so many different ways, to calmly and very peacefully, make the government understand that this is not what we want. You can check actually the women's march in 1979 in Iran. So from the early days of the revolution, and since this is a women led revolution, I'm talking about that one, but there has been so many different movements, so many different ways of trying to make the government understand we do not want this. We have tried voting, although there is no real election, we have tried asking for our votes back. Like in 2009, the university students tried like focusing on the freedom of press in 1999. We like we tried expressing our thoughts about the inflation in 2017. And then again in 2019, about the gas prices, which we call the bloody November because they cut off the internet and killed at least 1500 people in three days in 100 different cities. So we have tried different ways of making the government understand we have tried different methods. Some people were say, Okay, let's reform this government. Some people were trying to focus on social changes. Everybody has their own way. Now. Everybody's like, well, nothing worked. So we are united in one Solution Revolution.
It's very difficult sometimes To get a clearer picture of what might be going on, but also for people to have their voices heard across the country and outside of the country. So are you able to still have a free exchange of information with the artists from the original exhibit? And the ones that you have now? How has that changed? Have you been able to hear new voices? Have you been able to connect with the other artists that you initially use their work for the show?
Actually, it's a good point. And it there is two aspects of it. Like one is receiving the artwork from there. And the other thing is just communicating and with the government wants to shut down the voice, they restrict the internet very bad. And like, there are a few moments like with VPN, the people who have access to VPN, like not everyone has. And like, sometimes we get to exchange some messages, and sometimes not. It's just very hard, very hard. And actually, there is a piece I'm waiting for that for a while, it's a riddle that a very young artist is trying to send me of putting together pieces from the protest. And I'm so excited about that. And I love to show that to people, but she could not send it. Like with the internet, when it's available just so slow. It was not working. We have a social media group it all artists that are working with us. And I'm not sure when I send a message, how many of them actually say that the people who answer I just imagine like, they are the people who receive the message. And for the other one, I just do the most cautious things that I can do and like, not reveal their identity, like whatever they say, I know they delete their messages every time they go out. Because they don't want. Hopefully they don't. But if they get arrested, they don't want to have evidence that they are doing something. But from my part, I try to be respectful and as cautious as I can here. And I may end up not put their name out next to their pieces or cover some of them, they may be used for different reason to, to the in the original show. That's the way I try to navigate the situation, the most important things is like all of us are working together, and you are doing something. But I don't want to put anyone's life in danger. It's just that serious like you can get arrested because you want to have a show as simple as this like I want I took a picture, I want to show it to some against somebody else that doesn't do anything with the government here. It's enough for a person to get killed. And I try to be cautious about it.
And that's something that some people listening might not understand over here is that someone could have their name and their work publicized here. And in Iran, somebody could use that information that they shared this image and art in their name, and aligned with the show against them in their home country, which is pretty chilling to think about. I wanted to just ask both of you about something that was mentioned a little bit earlier is that so many Iranians have left the country? How has that galvanized the work of artists to share the story and to share their experience and experience of their country? Have you encountered more people around the world who have been reaching out or you've been able to connect with that are no longer in Iran,
I wanted to say like the beauty of this time is whoever I know is doing something not necessarily like with our show, but I've heard of a lot of show a lot of protests, a lot of performances that are showing the message beautifully and straight, like everyone is doing something and not necessarily artists. I know like one artists can design performance and many, many people just volunteer to help. And one of the posers is is about a man baloche guy who got killed in Iran. And it just like kind of very hard position to say like, it's a very hard position to to be like that. But people volunteer to do that like and they are not artists like not moving for a while. For a person who doesn't have the practice is not easy.
There are a lot of stories surrounding this protest the this revolution that actually break it could break someone's heart, but there's so many of them. One of them was what Chevron who mentioned I wanted to actually complete her explanation of the situation. So there was this Baluch guy but which is an ethnicity in south east of Iran by the border of Pakistan. This militia was shot. Then he was cuffed to a post like a flak post and then to torture him. So like while he was shot, he was cuffed to a handcuff to a flag post and they actually took a picture of him And then, because he was bleeding, he asked for water, because he was thirsty. So they put a bottle of water a few feet away from him to basically torture him more. So this is one of the many, many stories that have come out and basically break your heart. So the guy finally died, eventually died. That's one of the stories, and there's a lot of artwork surrounding his story. Yeah, his name was put on.
Everyone do whatever they can, and a little bit beyond that, the things they know, just to help this revolution. And I hear everyone is working. And I'm so happy about this about our show, the thing we do different this time is like, we try to bring the elements of the show of the revolution in the show, like, for example, one of the things that is just very powerful to watch is like how they take out their scar and burn it in a street like that just this act can have death penalty, but they are doing that right, we are gonna incorporate that in the show. And we are gonna make a slogan with half burned a scarf. Woman live freedom is gonna be made in the show with half burned scarves. And I think that's beautiful. That's very important part that I like to be in the show. The other thing is, we have another installation about a scarf. And that started with the idea that I saw it, I kept my last scarf, the one I came out of the country with which I was not sure if I get to wear that, again, I was not sure that I'm able to one day, go back home and need that the scarf to be there. And that was like a heavy piece to say time to time like it just for me as cough is not a normal object is just a sign of oppression, it reminds me an opportunity three years, I wear something that I hated, right. But at the same time, it's the sign of hope I'm gonna go home someday, I'm going to see my parents someday, right? I kept that piece that scarf. And now, maybe I never need to use that again. And that's beautiful, I am gonna put that scarf in the show. And I have an open call going on right now that people send me their last scarf, and we are gonna make an insulation from ceiling and talk about this, like the duality in the situation we have like, I am safer here. And my heart is back home, like a few of my best friends were arrested and like, I get to see the wound under body. Like with a picture. It's, it's hard like I duality in the situation is in the piece that I want to share with other people. We kind of have to be here, right? We have to leave the place we love dearly. And I think that's good that we can do something about this about this change. Like it helps me to navigate this time. And the other thing, then is social media is very important in this revolution, because people get to hear about the revolution from it. Like after one week's mainstream was quiet one weeks of this brutality happening in Iran. And then mainstream had to cover it after social media covered so much. And people ask them what's happening, why you don't say anything, right? Like the flow of information was different this time. It was from ordinary people that helped us and I am asking them to continue doing that the word came out and the narrative that government is making using mainstream with the bribing with money and lobbyists broke like people now get to see us, I want to bring that element in the show, the things we are doing is like I'm taking a screenshot of my phone when I am seeing the news about Iraq. I'm doing that because with the screenshot, I can ash like, record the source of the page. I'm documenting the social media, the things I already published, and I'm going to cover one wall, the gallery has two different space. The first one I'm going to cover the wall with social media illustration, and contribution from everyone like there are men, women from Iran, not from Iran. Everyone did something and they care. I mean, ordinary people care. And the hope that we have is like ordinary are going to force authorities to do something like that's what social media is important here. And the other thing is like writing on the wall in Iran, and we are going to bring those a slogan in the show like do the same exact thing. Use a spray and write on the wall and like have the translation And next to them. I think as logos can help people to understand what is that Iranian are fighting for?
Are there other plans to try to reach out to other galleries? Where do you hope to take it beyond Dallas?
What Charbonneau talked about the fact that with the help of ordinary people in the West, and with the pressure of Iranian people inside and outside Iran, we have been able to break this narrative. After 43 years, it's one of the beautiful aspects of this revolution. And the like, one of the things that we tried to do is that we try to focus on organically spread the word, I mean, that we try to go to places that there was a little bit of Iranian presence, there was the significant Iranian diaspora. So Iranians would like organically be a part of that community, they could bring other people in to hear what we have to say. So Dallas was a very good choice. The first of all, because I was there, and Shahrzad, my other sister is also in Dallas. So we could help with this. And the fact that there's a significant Iranian presence there. Iran is at a point that there is no hope of any form of normal life for a majority of the country, maybe for like the I don't know what percent of what percentage of the population actually supports the government, but it's very low, maybe a normal life for them, in their view is possible for 90% of the people, it is not possible anymore. And not everybody can leave, we left because we thought like we'd have to seek a better life elsewhere. But like Now, not everybody can think that way, like can do the same thing, not at 5 million people can leave the country. So that's why this time it is not stopping people are coming together and trying to basically make this revolution happen, because there is no hope for any other solution,
the exhibit in Dallas, how long does it go, it's the
month from December 10. To January 7, we have an opening the reception is at the same day as opening and we are gonna have a few performance by shares, and other artists, and we have the support of Iranian diaspora community in Dallas, they are gonna bring a piece that is actually worked on by many artists from there, we get the might get to add art from the area, we are one of the peers is gonna hopefully be made with anyone that gets to see the show, not just Iranian air, we are going to provide a list of the people who died for freedom and their name is going to be like the list is going to be longer and longer, unfortunately, and we are going to have a roll of white cloth with a pencil. And every audience gonna write down one name. And I think the piece is gonna be covered because there are many, we have the support of the community there. But like I just want to mention, if you care, you can do something, and it can happen from your own home. As earlier, as I mentioned, it just whatever you do, even talking about that, in your own social circles is helping like we want the awareness stay and like people recognize it's still happening. It's not that one news that like two months ago, they heard and it's done. It's not it's happening and it gets more brutal. And the way you can help is just with sharing about the incidents that are happening in Iran. And I actually can help like, if you want, you can go and follow my Instagram page, there are many of us working or like just see the stories I'm sharing. And from there, you can find other people that actually you can trust and they are not spreading misinformation of following some hashtag that I think the very famous one is woman life through them. You can follow this hashtag and have access to very good information to share it or share it and like have, it's actually an education opportunity. I can call it you can teach what is human right and what people can do. You can talk about this bravery with your children and use this as an education opportunity. I say that because it's it's an ecology right. And I guess people care. I think ordinary people care. And that's why I am bringing the bringing up like the ways that they can contribute when I get to see people and talk in person. I know ordinary people care. And our hope is just they get to force authorities that they maybe they think differently or they have some interest and our regime to stay act differently.
So like the most important actually actually is a follow is a hash tag masa. I mean, it's ashtag M AHSAA M, i and i, this is the name of the girl who was killed basically the spark of the revolution. And it actually broke Twitter's record.
So one final thing I know that we had a gallery page for the initial exhibit is there any place online people can go other than just through Instagram or anything like that where they can see some of the images that are in the traveling show?
Yeah, I'm hoping like with the pieces I just explained, after the show is actually up, we are going to make a new page in our website, your makeover gallery. But for now, if they want to see the original show, they can go to Heartland Community College, our gallery, Joe McCauley gallery page and like if they go through our past shows, it was last January. It has like 50 artists with 56 pictures that they can like look and think about what's going on.
I want to thank you both for taking some time to talk about this today. And I hope that you're able to have great success as the show opens in Dallas and then then beyond. So thank you so much for talking to us.
Thank you so much for the opportunity.
Sharpening Hamza is coordinator of the Joe McCauley gallery at Heartland Community College. She is collaborating with her brother Ali Reza Hamza to share the traveling art show women life freedom. If you're interested in the interview we conducted with sharpening Hamza about the original exhibit being a woman or other interviews about art, global concerns or other topics. Check out our other random acts of knowledge podcasts, and subscribe. Thanks for listening
