Untangling the Politics of Hair

FCB India

Brand: STIR Magazine

Year: 2023

On September 22, 2022, Mahsa Amini was beaten to death by Iran’s morality police because a loose tendril of hair escaped her hijab, leading to widespread protests across the country. While many governments around the world issued statements condemning this horrific repression, India remained silent.

To raise a voice of support to the women in Iran and bring their plight closer to home, STIR Magazine and FCB India teamed up with leading contemporary photographer Rohit Chawla, to create a moving exhibit: “The Politics of Hair.” The exhibition highlighted the age-old patriarchy observed in various cultures around the world regarding women’s hair, to help people connect the dots that any issue with a woman’s hair, really isn’t about the hair at all. As well as being the first advertising campaign to be invited to the India Art Fair, the visualization attracted the attention of India’s leading contemporary artist, Anjolie Ela Menon, and Booker Prize winners Geetanjali Shree, Bina Ramani, and Malani Ramini.

In silence, we helped India find its voice, as the conversation around the installation received more conversation in India than the issue itself, reaching over 100M readers across national media outlets; became the most talked-about piece at India’s most covered art exhibition; and was even invited to exhibit at the United Nations by the UN Head of India himself.