Artists Jonna Bo Lammers and Lotte Mask of VAAF, together with RUG researcher Safoora Kamjan, are making a mural about the protests in Iran. The artwork will be placed in the Koude Gat in Groningen.
After the violent death of 22-year-old Jîna Mahsa Amini in Iran in September (she was arrested by the morality police for not wearing her headscarf properly), women and men took to the streets en masse to protest against the Islamic regime. Those protests were crushed by brutal violence, arrests, threats and executions by the conservative rulers. The subject has faded somewhat into the background in the international media, but it is still unsettled in Iran.
“Now the Iranian authorities have confirmed that schoolgirls are being poisoned with a mysterious gas,” says researcher Safoora Kamjan (32) of the University of Groningen. She came to the UG from Iran in 2017 to finish her thesis. “The BBC, The Guardian and CNN have already reported on this.”
Paris and Berlin preceded Groningen
When the protests in Iran flared up at the end of last year, she wanted to do something to draw attention to the situation in her homeland. She felt helpless in the Netherlands, while her sister literally risked her life by taking to the streets in Tehran. “I live here, but my family and friends are there. I saw that murals were being made about the protests in major cities such as Paris and Berlin and I thought: we can do that in Groningen too.” There is also one in Assen.
She herself has the necessary experience with the morality police, a kind of separate department that drives around in white vans and picks people off the street if they don’t dress or behave the way the conservative rulers want them to. She was arrested as a 20-year-old because her shirt was not long enough. Fortunately, she was soon released. “As a woman you can be taken for the smallest things: from a too bright color of nail polish to having a tattoo.”
A statement in the city center
Kamjan was familiar with VAAF’s work, such as the large mural by Aletta Jacobs opposite the Academy Building in Groningen, and contacted them. “We immediately thought it was a great idea,” says Lammers. “Every year we do a free project for a good cause or to make a statement. This is right up that alley.”
At the end of last year Kamjan started the search for a suitable place for the mural. She found it: the Koude Gat, the narrow, somewhat dilapidated alley between the Herestraat and the Vismarkt. ,,It doesn’t look cozy at all now,” says Kamjan. ,,Together with VAAF we can make something very beautiful out of it.” She has also asked other Iranians in Groningen to come and help paint.
Basic human rights
Lammers and Mask made a design containing portraits of the deceased demonstrators, Kamjan contacted the owner of the building. Eventually − quite a bit of time passed − they also got the green light from the municipality.
Painting is scheduled to begin on April 10. The costs, including for the special monument paint, will be borne by VAAF. “Entrepreneurs in the area who want to offer us and the volunteers a free lunch or something else are welcome,” says Lammers jokingly.
Kamjan is happy that the mural is finally coming to fruition. “It’s not really a political statement at all,” she said. “It’s about women’s basic rights. That is relevant for women and men all over the world.”