Fazilat Soukhakian,
Iran, Women, Hijab, 2011
Photograph on fabric

“As an Iranian woman, artist and photographer, politics have defined my life,” said Fazilat Soukhakian of Salt Lake City, Utah. Fascinated by human interest stories and what they tell us about society, her work primarily deals with the political and social aspects of her surroundings. “Although it has been more than seventy-seven years since Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke about the Four Freedoms, which he regarded to be essential on a universal level, many people across the world still struggle with obtaining these freedoms. In this particular photograph, a child and women are depicted in a contemporary patriarchal society, in which their voice, appearance, and bodies are controlled by a religiously-entangled government.”