Title: The Wind in My Hair
Performance: Mobina Nouri
Music: Nima Sepehr + Mohammad Hassanzadeh
Speakers and hair installation: Katayoun Bahrami + Badri Valian

This event is a continuation of a The Wind in My Hair program curated by Katayoun Bahrami and presented by Clarion Alley Mural Project in collaboration with CCA Center for the Arts and Public Life in San Francisco to show solidarity with the brave women in Iran. The title of this event is borrowed from Masih Alinejad’s book, The Wind in My Hair.

Chopped hair and discarded hijabs have become worldwide symbols for women’s liberation after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. In the performance at Clarion Alley, Mobina Nouri attached scissors to her red dress and stood with long strands of her hair tied to a gate, each strand bearing the photo and name of an imprisoned protester. She invited participants to cut her hair and keep the images as sobering reminders of these individuals’ fates. Two musicians performed a duet called “Voices of Iran.”

“Woman. Life. Freedom.” “Zan. Zendegi. Azadi.” This is the slogan chanted on the streets of Iran since the Islamic Republic’s morality police killed Mahsa Amini after she was arrested because of an improper hijab. Despite brutal crackdowns and the internet being shut down, protesters have not backed down. These protests are about more than mandatory hijabs — they are about the systemic oppression of women in Iran. For more than 100 days now, the brave protesters in Iran have been risking their lives for freedom. Now women, men, girls, boys, and people of all ages are standing shoulder-to-shoulder against the regime that has segregated and oppressed women in Iran for decades.

Join us for this performance, turn outrage into action, and stand in solidarity with Iranian women.

Bios

Mobina Nouri is an Iranian-American multi-disciplinary artist based in San Francisco whose practice reflects her personal history as a female immigrant. Nouri received her BA in performance art and MA in art and design from Tehran University of Art in Iran, and her PhD in creativity from City, University of London in the United Kingdom. Working across a variety of media, the artist mines her country’s tradition of storytelling, often turning to philosophies, mysticism, and social issues to contemplate and reconsider the complexities in the contemporary moment. Nouri has exhibited internationally across a range of group and solo exhibitions in Iran, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Her work is included in private collections and was recently exhibited at the de Young.

Nima Sepehr is a musician, engineer, and explorer. He is experienced in the art of the santur (a classic Iranian instrument), various flutes, sound bows, gongs, and more. He has performed in various venues locally in California and globally in places like Guatemala and Costa Rica. Sepehr is also the founder of Prezenc, a passion project focused on community building, musical events, and hosting intentional practices. He believes mindfulness is the key to ending our unnecessary suffering, music is the food of our souls, and love is our ultimate goal. He does everything he can to bring awareness to these practices with the goal of bringing his community closer together. 

Mohammad Hassanzadeh is a data scientist. He spends a good amount of his free time learning and playing musical instruments. His music journey began at the age of 10 when he started to learn keyboard from Babak Roshanzamir. Over the years, he has carried out group performances at different schools such as Iran University of Science and Technology, Virginia Tech, and Stanford University. He started playing kamanche (a Persian spike fiddle) in 2005 with Alireza Mehdizadeh and continued receiving lessons from Samer Habibi, Korush Babaei, Arash Kamvar, and Amir Eslami.

Katayoun Bahrami is an Iranian multidisciplinary artist and curator living and working in the Bay Area. Her art focuses on the interaction between women’s bodies as targets and performers. To convey her ideas, Bahrami uses mixed-media pieces, installations, textiles, videos, and photographs. Her work has been exhibited across the U.S. and internationally. Born in Tehran, she earned her BFA from the University of Science and Culture in Iran and her MA in arts and cultural management from Michigan State University in 2017. In 2022, she graduated from California College of the Arts with an MFA in studio arts.

Badri Valian is a participatory interactive installation artist and painter living in the Bay Area. She studied fine arts back in her home country, Iran, where she received several national awards for her creative techniques and public-oriented projects. The prevalent censorship, gender discrimination, and inequality she experienced in her home country, and its contrast to her life in the U.S., encouraged her to find her voice and make a tremendous shift through her art. Badri’s work investigates personal and social issues such as poverty, systemic racism, sexual harassment, dictatorship, and forced displacements.

Contact info

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