Artists in Iran reach the world with their protests: "Previously impossible to reach out"

"We are not afraid anymore.

We will fight,” reads a large banner placed on an overpass of Modares highway in Tehran.

On a sign across the same freeway, a man with a spray can changes the wording of another sign from "The police are the people's servants" to "The police are the people's killers".

The clip is circulating on social media.

Images have also been circulated of a fountain painted blood red in the Iranian capital, although authorities claim that "this information is completely false".

Elsewhere, someone has sprayed "Death to Khamenei".

- For 44 years, artists tried to push the boundaries, resist the regime, but it was impossible before to reach out and many of us were forced to flee the country, says Mandana Moghaddam to Kulturnyheterna.

Flee to Sweden in the 80s

She says that the conditions are better today, with the internet and a whole generation that grew up with social media and can easily reach the whole world with their message. 

- Everyone is an artist today, she says. 

Mandana Moghaddam came to Sweden as a quota refugee in the late 80s.

Here she has been able to continue with her art, uncensored.

Among other things, she has made the installation series "Chelgis", which takes its name from an old Persian fairy tale and can be translated as "the girl with the forty braids".

The series revolves around hair and the female body.

But now it is difficult to focus on anything other than what is happening in Iran.

She checks the feed in social media which is filled with images which, despite the internet being blocked, continue to trickle out.

There are fight songs, film clips honoring the victims of police brutality.

Sad but hopeful 

- I cry every day, but I am also hopeful, and the hope comes from the young people who step forward and lead us, says Moghaddam. 

She believes that this time the protests will lead to real change.

The difference now, she says compared to the student uprising in 1999, is that "everyone" is behind the uprising, which is mainly led by young people. 

- Last time it was students and some reformists who demonstrated.

Now everyone stands united behind the demand to oust the regime, she says. 

- There must be a change, says Moghaddam, who has difficulty holding back tears.