'This series forms part of the first body of work that I made between 1993 and 1997, following my first trip to Iran since the 1979 Iranian Revolution. With this series, I began an uncompromising journey of experimentation and discovery, using art as the means to resolve personal dilemmas. What Women of Allah and my later series have in common is not only a sense of style, but also a melancholic beauty, which I trace back to my early experiences of the Koranic chant and religious iconography. In them, faith overcomes anxiety while martyrdom and self-sacrifice give the soul strength'
(Shirin Neshat quoted in A.C. Danto, Shirin Neshat, New York 2009, p. 19.)