Dancer Farzaneh kaboli

Representatives from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance’s council on performing arts saw the work twice and photographed the costumes. The costumes were baggy and designed in line with strict hijab guidelines, making them suitable for all performing events. The costumes included headscarves decorated with sparkling sequins. We scheduled two performances on a single day at Tehran’s Milad Hall. Salar Aghili’s wife called me at around five o’clock in the afternoon, saying that they had canceled the first performance scheduled for seven O’clock. She said the manager of the Milad Hall had told her that the event could go ahead ‘only over his dead body because there was a woman dancer in the concert.’