This multiplicity allows her to weave together Eastern and Western visual languages, incorporating Persian poetics and Western cinematic realism in her storytelling. Her films and poems often question binaries: East/West, woman/man, home/exile, freedom/constraint. She seeks to dissolve these dualities, portraying identity as layered and fluid rather than fixed. This makes her voice particularly resonant in the global conversations around migration, feminism, and representation in contemporary media.
Aghdashloo’s work is rooted in intersectional feminism. She examines women’s lives not only through a lens of gender, but also through cultural, social, and political contexts. Her female characters are complex and autonomous—they make mistakes, take risks, and resist stereotypes. In interviews and essays, she has emphasized the importance of self-authorship—the right for women, especially from marginalized or diasporic backgrounds, to tell their own stories without being reduced to symbols or victims. This conviction runs through her film Empty Your Pockets and her poetry, which often balances sensuality and defiance.
