Shirin Neshat Quotes

I find that through the study of women, you get to the heart - the truth - of the culture.

I believe we don't need to widen the divide between the West and Islam. Rather, we need to build dialogue to encourage tolerance and respect.

Art is our weapon. Culture is a form of resistance.

I'm an artist, I'm not an activist.

I'm really interested in social justice, and if an artist has a certain power of being heard and voicing something important, it's right to do it. It could still be done in such a way that it's not aggressive or overly didactic. I'm trying to find that form.

My father was a doctor, but he was what I would call an intellectual - very well-read and very interested in knowledge. He insisted that I get as much education as my brothers.

Magical realism allows an artist like myself to inject layers of meaning without being obvious. In American culture, where there is freedom of expression, this approach may seem forced, unnecessary and misunderstood. But this system of communication has become very Iranian.

Art is no crime. It's every artist's responsibility to make art that is meaningful

Every Iranian artist dreams of the black market. We don't care about making money.

I believe and support the feminist movement, but I am not generally interested in considering women's rights in relation to equality with men, or in a competition with men, but rather within their own rights and feminine space.

Beautiful woman wrapped in chadors, with huge machine guns in their hands. Brilliant, shocking, amazingly contradictory images. They compelled me to deeply investigate these ideas.

Being political is an integral part of being Iranian. Our lives are defined by politics.

Every Iranian artist, in one form or another, is political. Politics have defined our lives.