On the eve of the third anniversary of the state murder of Mahsa (Jina) Amini and the beginning of the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement, countless traces of its achievements remain. One of these traces is the stains left by that uprising on the walls and streets of Iran.
In her article “Stain: The Trace of an Unfinished Battle,” Shadi Bitaraf reflects on a research process in which wall writings, along with the remnants of their erasure and suppression, are visually documented and recorded according to their historical and spatial context. Whether freshly written or partially concealed in the struggle against the machinery of repression, these wall writings, like stains on the city’s public surfaces, have become part of its visual and historical culture.