SCULPTOR
Fariba, Iranian Émigré
Plaster, 21" x 13" x 10"



Fariba, with her husband, émigrated to the United States from Iran to live with her son, then a doctoral student. She left her extended family, her religious community and her career as a pediatrician. I first sculpted her portrait without her headscarf in 2019. Then in 2022, I added the headscarf, as she requested, to honor her Iranian heritage, her professional status and her faith as a Muslim. The meaning of the hijab has taken a sharp turn for Fariba, and for millions of Iranian women, since then, catalyzed by the death of Masha Amini while in the custody of the religious morality police. Once a symbol of cultural pride, it now stands for the brutal repression of women living under a theocratic dictatorship. For Fariba, the loss has gone deeper; her son passed away in 2023, her faith in God erased. “Don’t make yourself tired praying, it’s nobody’s hand”, he told her before he died. The headscarf once worn to affirm and express her faith now represents her loss. Exhibits and Awards: New England Sculpture Association Award at the 91st Annual National Juried Exhibition of the Hudson Valley Art Association, Old Lyme, CT, 2024 National Sculpture Society Melting Pot Exhibition, New York, 2023.