Shirin Neshat’s Unveiling Series #1 (1993, 2025) is a signed pigment print with silkscreen and a varnish seal on paper, presenting a striking black and white portrait of a veiled woman whose face and chador are meticulously overlaid with handwritten Persian calligraphy. The script, inspired by modern Iranian poetry and closely associated with the voice of Forough Farrokhzad, weaves across the image in rhythmic, flowing lines that merge text and portraiture into a unified visual field.

The calligraphy acts as both veil and revelation, transforming language into a form of symbolic adornment while aligning the image with the broader tradition of text-based art. By embedding poetic text directly onto the female body and its coverings, Neshat blurs the boundary between inner voice and outward representation, evoking a tension between visibility and silence that defines much of her early photographic work. Rooted in cultural memory and poetic resistance, the limited edition print captures the emotional depth and political subtlety that have come to characterize Neshat’s practice.