Muslim student who says she feels 'dehumanized' by art showing veiled women flashing underwear

A Muslim student in Minnesota has organized a petition against an Iranian American artist's exhibition that shows Muslim women in revealing underwear after she felt 'dehumanized' and has demanded the school remove the pieces. 

Ikran Noor, a junior at Macalester College in St. Paul, have asked her fellow students to 'stand in solidarity' with her in protest over Taravat Talepasand's exhibition at the school. She has placed several flyers around the school and on the door to the exhibit asking students to not attend the gallery viewing and to sign her petition - which has around 80 signatures. 

The Iranian American artist, who claims her work was censored by a Minnesota college, has demanded the school remove the petition calling for her racier pieces from the exhibition be withdrawn after Noor branded the work 'dehumanizing.'  

Talepasand's exhibition at Macalester College was temporarily covered up after Noor and several other Muslim students at the school expressed their discomfort. 

The 43-year-old artist's exhibit featured drawings of women in niqabs and high heels lifting their robes to reveal underwear, as well as porcelain sculptures of similar women with exposed breasts. 

Taravat Talepasand's exhibition in Macalester College in St. Paul was temporarily covered up after student Ikran Noor and several other Muslim students at the school expressed their discomfort 

Ikran Noor (pictured) has asked for the more racier pieces be removed from the gallery. She was also the student who started the petition, which has around 80 signatures 

Noor started the petition on her social media on February 3, claiming that Talepasand's work has 'caused hurt for many students' due to its 'objectifying ways.' 

'This is NOT a question of support for Iranian Women for that is a given This is a critique of the exhibit that portrays hijab-wearing Muslim Women in extremely degrading and dehumanizing way,' Noor wrote. She went on to say that 'objectification [and] fetishization' of Muslim women has caused a 'rise in sexual assault' against them. 

'This art exhibit perpetuates that same cycle of violence. It is DISGUSTING, DEHUMANIZING, and DEGRADING,' she wrote on February 3. 

Since it's reopening on February 6, the school installed frosted glass and placed a trigger warning on the door to the exhibit. A student-made flyer has also appeared on the door, asking others to not attend the show, which the artist has branded it a 'violation' and a 'censorship' of her work. 

'I think it would be reasonable to demand the frosted decals and the petition be removed,' she told Sahan Journal. 

She also said she was not told by the school that they had put up black curtains around her work and that created a 'whole other level of censorship.' She also requested that none of her work be removed and that the consent note be clearly visible on the gallery's closed doors. 

Since it's reopening on February 6, the school installed frosted glass and placed a trigger warning on the door to the exhibit. A student-made flyer has also appeared on the door, asking others to not attend the show

The artist has branded it a 'violation' and a 'censorship' of her work. 'I think it would be reasonable to demand the frosted decals and the petition be removed,' she said 

'During the opening on Friday, January 27, I spoke with the Chair who supported my exhibition and stated that they would never censor my work as it provides critical dialogue about self expression and the solidarity with the woman in and from Iran,' the artist work in a document shared with DailyMail.com.  

Prior to the frosted glass, the school had installed black curtains around her work, causing viewers to have to manually move the partition to view the work. It later opted for frosted glass to allow the artwork to be unobstructed from inside the gallery.  

Macalester put up the frosted glass to prevent students from unintentionally viewing the artwork that contains 'images of sexuality and violence that may be upsetting or unacceptable for some viewers.' 

'Please view the exhibition with caution,' the trigger warning on the door read. 

On the same door, the Noor's flyer read: 'Stand with us in solidarity...Do not attend, visit, or engage with this exhibit.' 

Despite her reaction to the exhibit, Noor doesn't want to complete remove the exhibit, but rather 'the ones that are particularly depicting hijabi women and niqabi women.' 

'I think those should be put down,' she told Sahan Journal. The student said the exhibit felt 'a bit targeting because there's not that many Muslim students here.' 

While the gallery was temporarily closed, it was covered by black curtains. The artwork inside had also been covered as well 

The 43-year-old artist's exhibit featured drawings of women in niqabs and high heels lifting their robes to reveal underwear, as well as porcelain sculptures of similar women with exposed breasts.

'At a predominantly white institution, when I’m looking at who’s attending the school, who’s walking into this exhibit, without understanding and nuance, then it’s quite harmful.' 

She claimed to have seen non-Muslim students leaving the gallery showing laughing. 

Noor wasn't the only student who felt offended by the artwork, as sophomore and track star Kalid Ali said that he, too, 'wasn't okay with it.' 

'Maybe another student will be okay as long as it has a warning, but as someone who grew up respecting women and the hijab I wasn’t okay with it,' he told the Sahan Journal. 

Noor said she felt singled out as one of the few hijabi women on campus and worried how other students would start to view her because of the artwork. 

When Noor and others met with school officials - where she claimed many cried - she said she felt as if the school was not listening to them. 

'As a Muslim student I think I felt a kind of betrayal,' Ali agreed. 'I’m thinking they took into account different perspectives, different people’s views, and they decided the best way is to keep the exhibit and the content within the exhibits.' 

Student Ikran Noor said she felt the work (pictured) was 'degrading' and sexualized Muslim women 

A neon sign reading 'Woman, Life, Freedom' was a nod to recent nationwide protests in Iran. Noor made it clear that she did support Iranian women, but felt objectified by the artwork due to the small community of Muslim students at the school 

The email sent to students by Lisa Anderson-Levy and Alina Wong, viewed by DailyMail.com, acknowledged the 'disrespect, disregard, and invisibility' that some students experienced and apologized for not taking the 'steps needed to demonstrate cultural sensitivity and awareness of the possible impact of the art.' 

Despite the positive step from the school, Noor still questioned why a trigger warning and an email had not been offered before the exhibition debuted. 

'It is really frustrating and emotionally draining for Muslim students, or BIPOC students, to have to educate everybody else on what’s going on,' Noor told the Suhan Journal. 

'It doesn’t look like the school administration is going to do anything anyway, but just to show the students that there’s other people standing with them.' 

So far, around 80 students have signed Noor's petition and the student argued that 'critiquing the art is not silencing the artist.' 

'I should be able to say that, hey, as a Muslim woman on this campus who wears the hijab, this is pretty harmful to me. And this is pretty harmful to other women as well,' she told Suhan Journal. 'It’s not like I’m saying, no one should see the art, but take it elsewhere.

The artwork is still displayed at the school (pictured) 

'As an institution, you have the right to say we don’t want to be associated with this sort of thing.' 

DailyMail.com has reached out to Noor for comment.  

'My artwork is unapologetic,' Talepasand - who was born in Oregon in 1979 to Iranian parents, the year  the Iran Islamic Revolution began - told the Suhan Journal. 'I’m making work that’s finding the similarities, not just differences, between East and West and how, in a lot of ways, they parallel.

'Sometimes it can be very political. Sometimes it can be very controversial. But I do firmly believe that art can promote these conversations,' she continued. 

The artist said her work is meant to be a 'voice and the share the awareness of what's happening in Iran, but not only in Iran, but what is happening here in America.' 

'We’re still fighting for female autonomy, right? And it’s very much a conversation that is happening in many other countries.' 

During opening night, the artist, who also works as an assistant professor of art practice at Portland State University, spoke with students to discuss her art and send she had a good turn out. 

'It was a really great celebratory night,' she told the outlet. 'I had women from Morocco, Egypt, Iranians, who were really there to support my work.'