NOVEMBER 5, 2022 – Earlier this week, after a brief rain in San Francisco’s Mission District, the sun appeared on Clarion Alley where a small team of women were brushing green paint on the top of a “Women, Life, Freedom” mural. The green, red and white of Iran’s flag served as the backdrop to the drawing of a woman cutting her ponytail with scissors — one of the many iconic images emerging from Iran in the past several weeks.
This is the second of at least three planned murals in solidarity with Iran. The first was completed in Albany at the end of October.
“The first mural in Albany shows a woman who is burning her headscarf, which is a symbol of oppression in Iran,” said Leva Zand, the executive director of ARTogether, a Bay Area nonprofit that uses arts for community building. Zand clarifies that when Iranian women burn their headscarves, they are not necessarily opposing the religious aspect, but rather what they see as an oppressive government.
