In a letter to his brother Theo in September 1888, Van Gogh wrote: “There is no art in the whole world greater or more genuine than love for people.”

Artists such as Afsaneh Bayegan, Taraneh Alidoosti, Leila Bolukat, Azadeh Samadi, Hengameh Ghaziani and many others remained, through love, beside their people and defended the value of art within their society.

Victor Hugo once wrote: the greatest duty of the artist is to reveal the pains of their society and then, in the next step, to transform themselves and their art into a symbol of hope in which society can see a better tomorrow.

Afsaneh Bayegan and the other artists who are paying the price for standing alongside the demands of society are social symbols of hope in the victory of the ideals of Woman, Life, Freedom.

Aydin Areta