Shirin Neshat

         
                Shirin Neshat is an Iranian artist, film-maker and photographer. She solely directed and wrote along with several other writers the 2009 film "Women Without Men". This film passes the Bechdel Test several times over. Neshat's approach to art is deep and transformative. She knows how to capture her audience without needing her cast to have much dialogue. Her work is deeply based in emotions, in feeling, in being able (almost effortlessly) to put yourself in the shoes of a woman, not only in the film "Women Without Men" but in the the shoes of a woman in Iran, especially during and after the Iranian revolution. Neshat's work is so important in not only Iranian or Arabic culture but in the lives of all women because we all have faced some form of oppression, some more overt than others but nonetheless, we've suffered. All in all, Neshat's work has been well-received. She won the Venice film festival 'Silver Lion" award for best directing for her work in "Women Without Men".