3 Days to Liberation

A project by CONSTANZA MACRAS/DORKYPARK and Maryam Palizban

Conceived and curated by Maryam Palizban and Constanza Macras

The murder of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini by the Iranian „morality police“ marked the beginning of a Feminist Revolution. It is the preliminary culmination of a movement whose long history has gone largely unnoticed in the West.

Since the 1979 revolution in Iran, which later became known as the „Islamic Revolution“, Iranian society has been in a process of division. Since the early days, which changed the entire political landscape in the Middle East and beyond, there has been one of the largest migrations of artists and intellectuals from Iran to Europe and the US. At the same time, protests emerged in Iran demanding women*’s rights, especially in public spaces and the foundation of a new republic. These protests resisted the rise of misogynist structures and demanded political participation. The Iranian regime systematically pictured the diaspora as the enemy. The Jina Revolution shattered this depiction for the first time.

The protagonists of this revolution were also artists and intellectuals with a vision of the future that is nourished by their biographies in Iran and beyond. The boundaries of their struggle transcend the nationalist narratives. Their artistic and academic works and existences were based on the fundamental concept of resistance and opposed the narratives of the Islamic regime in all its foundation.

3 Days to Liberation aims to be a platform for the exchange of ideas and experiences. A space for perspectives of proximity. A place for testimonials through film and theater, for discussions with artists and activists who live the vision of freedom in their individual resistance and whose story is part of the ongoing feminist revolution. The process of liberation and the role of artists – self-liberation – connects all participants. In this forum, the understanding of today’s developments in Iran and their reflection in migrant cultures of the West also deepens. The project will therefore historically contextualize the works of the participating artists and intellectuals, who each have their own experiences with postcolonialism and migration. In this way, 3 Days to Liberation discusses the conditions that make it difficult for migrant creatives to be included in certain narratives of their host countries and how the traces of the Iranian regime remain visible as wounds in their lives and works even in exile.

We asked ourselves: How much longer? The images, the news, portrayed an ever-growing longing for life, for freedom, and the „we“: we women*.

There is no way back – say those who joined the revolution. 

Now one year has passed. The number of people murdered and imprisoned, the work bans, travel bans, and contact bans are higher than ever. Some had to attend theological seminars in the city of Ghom as punishment or undergo psychological treatment, especially actresses who appeared in public without a headscarf. But a revolution lives with every single life. The Jina revolution is linked to names. A year ago, it was Jina, Sarina, Nika, … and today, Armita. But also, the detainees, the journalists Niloufar, Elaheh, the activists Sarvenaz, Bahareh… and the Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges, who has been in prison for years. 

The revolution lives in the stories of suffering, life and love. From them, emerges the shared celebration, the grief and the collective strength. 

3 Days to Liberation:

A declaration of love to a revolution

Text by: Maryam Palizban