Shirin Neshat is by far the most internationally well-known Iranian contemporary artist. Her visually impressive works reflect on her two opposing cultural backgrounds, one of her country of origin and the other of the 'West', which is her home now. Neshat's work reaches a global audience, as she says, "For me it is vital to portray a theme from within in order to create something that is pure and not to succumb to the pressure drawing parallels between two cultures".

Neshat began her iconic images of Women of Allah in 1997, after visiting Iran for the first time as an Iranian-American after the revolution. Her work is not only about reconciliation with her past and her culture, but also about showing contradictions and paradoxes of the social aspects of women's experience in Iran. These contradictions are also evident in the choices Neshat has made in the images: juxtapositions of the visual language, using black and white and for the text that is vital in interpreting the image. 

Inscribed on the image is a poem by Forough Farrokhzad:

I will greet the sun again
the stream that was running through me
the clouds that were like my long thoughts
the painful growth of that garden
that crossed the dry seasons with me
the heap of birds that offered me the gift of
wonderful scent of farms 
my mother who lived in the mirror
and resembled my old age