Kherqe Daridan

Oil on Canvas · 24 × 36 inches

Kherqe Daridan (tearing the dervish’s cloak) presents rupture as both a spiritual and a political act. In a dim interior, cloaked figures kneel in rigid submission, their individuality absorbed into collective obedience. A skull and shadowed threshold hint at spiritual exhaustion and mortality beneath doctrine.

In stark contrast, a solitary nude figure twists upward, clutching a discarded robe. Its elongated, strained body embodies خرقه‌دریدن—the Sufi gesture of tearing the sacred garment to reject hypocrisy and seek inner truth. Liberation here is ecstatic yet painful, marked by exposure rather than triumph.

Fragments scattered across the floor suggest shattered certainties, while a faint glow emerges beyond institutional confines. Created amid the ideological turbulence of late-1970s Iran, the painting explores defiance not as spectacle, but as vulnerable awakening. Transformation begins when one dares to stand unprotected before belief, authority, and oneself.