Shirin Neshat: Last spring, I was thinking about making a video about the sexual exploitation of female political prisoners by the Islamic Republic’s regime in Iran, and I needed the voice of a woman from Iran or somewhere in the Middle East. When I watched Emel sing and play her instruments, I was convinced that I had to work with her. I met her after her performance at Lincoln Center last April.
One of the songs that I wanted to use in the video is originally Persian, but Emel took it and wrote Arabic lyrics. I am Iranian, but I’ve lived in the United States for a long time — longer than in my own country — so although my work really relates to Iran, the way I work often transcends Iranian culture. I want it to have this universal resonance. While Emel sings in Arabic, the soulfulness of her music was the right match for how I wanted to convey this story. Both Emel and I refuse to be ethnically specific or pigeonholed as Iranian or Tunisian. We’re truly international artists, yet we’re deeply rooted in the foundations of our cultures.
Having been on my own, in exile, without my family’s support since I was a young woman, I never thought that I could make it as an artist or become a person whom people pay attention to, so I’m always very touched and moved by younger artists who feel my work has relevance to them — whether they’re Iranian American, African American, Hispanic or anything else.
Emel Mathlouthi: Shirin was humble enough to stay until the end of my show and wait for her turn to talk to me — which to me was huge! That’s when she said she would love to collaborate. She mentioned something that really made me happy: She said that in my music there were so many mixes of influences that were totally surprising and unpredictable. I was mixing my Tunisian side and Arabic side with my New York side in a natural way, switching between Western and Eastern sounds and music. That’s exactly what I think about Shirin’s work. There are only a few people who inspire me that way: Shirin and my friend the designer Azzedine Alaïa, who died in 2017.
Interviews have been edited and condensed.
Hair and makeup: Laura de Leon
