Looking at the art work from the Islamic Revolution inspired me to make propaganda posters of my own, however with an emphasis on feminism. We learned that Iran, a majority Shiite nation, often had posters praising the family of Muhammad. The narratives of sacrifice and standing up for the right thing in the face of sure defeat when the succession of Muhammad was contested, is a story told over again. Those same figures figure into the iconography of Iranians, particularly during the Islamic Revolution and the Iraq war.
We often perceive the propaganda to be negative word, in certainly has many negative associations in world history. However, I think art can be used for political purposes. Images, symbols, etc are extremely powerful and such representation can galvanize populations to act for good things and bad. Certainly the posters concerning the Islamic Revolution disseminated an image of the Shah as a tyrant and depicted an Iran that was ready and ripe for more democracy while yearning for a sense of nationalism. Whether the Iranian Revolution turned out exactly as everyone planned, the posters represent a moment of idealism.
I thought about what posters I would have had I been an activist in Iran at the time of the Revolution and what poster I would make in the U.S. today. I combined an image of Rosie the Riveter, an iconic figure of female strength and independence, with a figure that is supposed to be Muhammad. Representationally, the image suggests a mere blending of western feminism with Islamic faith. Additionally, in the framing of Muhammad, I included something that might by describe as Arabesque. The images I chose are somewhat essentializing, but I purposefully chose images that were cliché because they are often times most legible for the widest audience. And of course, one of the aims of propaganda is to reach the widest audience. Arguably, I imagine the poster would be most legible in a nation like the U.S.
The message at the bottom of one poster says, “Muhammad supports Women’s Education” and the second says, “Muhammad opposes the war against women.” The first is meant to address one of the concerns people had in the Islamic Revolution. Though Islamicization may have resulted in a shift in societal codes that are considered stricter for women, it also allowed women greater access to education. The second poster address one of the ongoing political issues in the United States, attacks on birth control have been framed as “A War on Women.” I think this is interesting because that phrasing also is charged with other campaigns from the Right, such as the “War on Terrorism” or the “War on Drugs. I can imagine similar posters saying “Muhammad opposes the War on Terrorism” or “Muhammad opposes the War on Drugs.” I see the importance of propaganda, also in the case of the posters I made, to be that it can create positive associations and create new signification that are productive to the project at hand. Thus my posters attempt to tie Islam to feminism by reappropriating symbols that we see in similar but unfamiliar contexts.
