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professor soukhakian at caa
Feb. 15, 2024
Anonymous artist; public protest, Iran; 2022This week Professor Fazilat Soukhakian is in Chicago for the CAA annual conference where she will present a paper, “Fighting for Emancipation: How Iranian Activist Artists are Shaping the New Feminist Revolution ‘Woman, Life, Freedom,’” as part of a session “How do feminist artists care?”
In her paper, Professor Soukhakian investigates the politics of art activism and the relationship between aesthetics and politics by focusing on how young artists from across Iran have bravely and creatively responded to the chaos and violence around them—particularly in the aftermath of the Sept. 2022 arrest of Mahsa Zhina Amini. Amini was arrested for not wearing her headscarf properly and died while in police custody. Risking their own arrest and persecution by the Iranian regime, these artists work from hidden, underground spaces to fuel revolution and awaken the collective memory of Iranian women whose bodies, minds, and lives have historically gone through many forms of torture and brutality.
CAA is the preeminent international leadership organization in the visual arts. Each year the annual conference brings together preeminent arts scholars to promote understanding through advocacy, intellectual engagement, and a commitment to the diversity.