Since protests began in Iran four weeks ago, the artist Shirin Nishat has been glued to her phone.

I think for most of us living outside of Iran, we pretty much expected that we will go very likely the rest of our lives in the state that we are.

Maybe things will go up and down a little in Iran, but we'll never go back.

And then came this day and this news, and we thought, oh, well, this is just another short uprising

will last a few days or a week.

And now it's like we're entering the fourth week, the longest uprising we've had since the

Iranian Revolution in 1979.

And the people of Iran are furious.

Shirin lives in the U.S., she has since the 1970s.

But over the last 30 years, she's become one of the most esteemed, well-known artists making work about Iranian

women in the world. And women are leading the current protests, mostly really young women.

The protests began after the death of 22-year-old Masa Amini. Masa had been detained by Iran's

morality police for allegedly not properly

observing the hijab, and she died in their custody. But her death sparked action that's grown

far beyond a call for justice for Masa's family and beyond fighting for the laws around women's dress.

It sort of unleashed a kind of rage that was brewing in people's hearts and lives.

And it was almost as if they were having to wait for a martyr or someone who symbolized their

struggles.

Today, Shirin gives us context for the protests in Iran.

We also talk about her expansive body of work.

Sharin is a multimedia artist. She came to fame with a series in the 90s called Women of Allah.

This month, in support of the protests, Sharin has allowed some of these images to be projected on buildings across central London and Los Angeles.

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