Women with clenched fists and schoolgirls without headscarves defying the security forces: These are haunting images that have been making their way to the public since the protests in Iran began. The death of the Kurdish-Iranian Jina Mahsa Amini has not only sparked anger on the streets, but also massive protests on social media.

Iranians use their creativity to express their opposition to the regime. Through the slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom”, songs and protest art, the call for freedom in the country is brought to millions of people worldwide.

The Iranian-Dutch designer Sara Emami also made illustrations. One of the pictures shows a woman with long hair and the caption: “Did you know that letting your hair blow in the wind is a crime in Iran?”.

With the poster, she hopes to explain what’s going on. “I notice that people have a hard time understanding what’s going on in Iran,” says Emami. “That’s how everyone can imagine it.” She saw her illustrations at large solidarity demonstrations in Los Angeles, Tokyo, Berlin and Oslo, among other places.

The protest art, now mainly made and distributed by the “TikTok generation,” is accessible to everyone, regardless of cultural background, says Nafise Motlaq. The Iranian is a photographer and media scientist at Nisantasi University in Istanbul. “No matter what country you come from, everyone can understand the pictures and feel what they say.”

For twenty years, Motlaq has been closely following the protests in Iran and the applied protest art. “The posters used to be made by professional caricaturists and often carried the same message. People who are oppressed, imprisoned, suffocated. They ask for help or ask to pray for them.”

Now Motlaq sees illustrations that mostly depict courage and strength, sometimes pain as well. The images often show women with long, flowing hair raising their fists in the air. “Often it’s a woman standing alone and brave, confident and calm,” Motlaq said, based on her analysis of 100 protest images. “It wants individual freedom and does not represent any particular economic class, ethnicity or religious group.”

The faces of young women and girls killed by violence are also often seen in the images, particularly the face of Mahsa Amini. “An iconic woman who has grown bigger than herself,” says Motlaq. Other common themes include the map of Iran depicted as a woman, the use of blood, and Tehran’s Azadi Tower, the capital’s most famous building, whose name means ‘Tower of Freedom’ in Persian.

Women’s hair is also a common symbol in protest art. Women rebel by taking off the obligatory headscarf and thus claiming their freedom. “It’s not just about choosing whether to cover your hair or not, it symbolizes that the whole system needs to change.” Emami agrees: “It’s become a symbol of everything that’s wrong, of all kinds of oppression.”

Images show ayatollahs being chased away from women’s hair. Hair cutting is also a lot to see. This also has a symbolic meaning: the women are figuratively depriving the regime of power over them.

“Woman, Life, Freedom”

Emami’s other illustration is inspired by a photo of Iranian girls. At school they take off their headscarves and turn over the portrait of Supreme Leader Khamenei and write the slogan “Zan, zendegi, azadi” or “Woman, life, freedom” on it. “I was so touched. It’s incredibly brave that they dared to do this,” says Emami. “This drawing represents their courage and also the hope for a brighter future for the new generation.”

“I don’t know if these illustrations reach these girls, but this way we don’t forget them,” says Emami. “We must remain a voice for them. I feel responsible for that. I’m not a politician, but I’m creative. It feels like my duty.”