Final answer:
Shirin Neshat's Women of Allah is not about portraying Islamic women as subordinate to academic or allegorical art, but instead, it explores the psychological and social identity of women in post-revolutionary Iran, integrating textual and figurative imagery in a powerful critique.
Step-by-step explanation:
Shirin Neshat's work in Women of Allah is not about depicting women in Islamic culture as subordinate to the unrealities of academic or allegorical painting. Instead, her early photographic work, including the piece titled Speechless, focuses on the psychological experiences of women within Islamic cultures, addressing issues of femininity, identity, and the complexities experienced by women post-Iranian Revolution. Neshat's photographs are suggestively staged with women in chador, integrating Farsi text from female authors to explore the social and political narratives of the time.
In her work, Neshat does not depict the cosmopolitan women that once existed in Iran, as they were significantly affected and transformed by the ascension of men's control and Islamic fundamentalism in the post-revolutionary society. Instead of a subordinate portrayal, she presents a powerful image that scrutinizes and questions these sociopolitical changes. Moreover, the photographs are not primarily focused on Islamic art's traditional rejection of figurative imagery, but rather, they use calligraphic and photographic imagery to communicate the artist's concept.