The photographer and video artist Shirin Neshat (b. 1957, Qazwin) is renowned for work that focuses on historical, political and social aspects of the Islamic world. The series 'Women of Allah' (1993-97) is an important ensemble of black-and-white, close-up photographs of female subjects. Of these veiled, armed and tattooed women, only parts of their faces, hands or feet are visible, left exposed by their garments but overlaid with poetry written in Persian calligraphy or Farsi. Chadors entwine with weapons, the power of the female gaze intermingles with a state of martyrdom, bodies covered in poetry underline the complexity of identity and the need to overcome stereotypes. Neshat left her native country in 1974 but following the Islamic Revolution of 1979 was unable to return until 1990, after the death of Ayatollah Khomeini. Begun just three years later, this series is marked by the artist's experience of the profound change that occurred in her absence, and its particular impact upon the status of women.