“Being a woman is very hard, you’d have to work hard to succeed”

“Being a woman is very hard. A woman has to be a friend, a good wife and a perfect mother, and also successful in her career,” musician and illustrator Neda Izadi said.

DILAN MOHAMMADI

Mahabad- Neda Izadi was born 1989 and currently lives in Mashhad. She is a musician and a children’s book illustrator. She studied graphics in college.

 “I started illustrating from a young age and I love my occupation but I don’t feel any support from people in society. They don’t show any interest in illustration, they don’t even know what illustration is, for most people it’s an unknown job,” she said while speaking about illustration.

 “My life is intertwined with art”

Speaking about the challenges faced by her, she said, “We face many challenges in this sector; we mostly face problems when we publish a book or we’d have to censor some parts of our books. I am an illustrator, mostly portraying women, I have to change and modify some parts of them so that my work is published in Iran. Being a woman in the Middle Eastern countries is very hard. Here, women have to be friends, good wives and perfect mothers and successful in their career. Here, there are many responsibilities on women’s shoulders. A woman has to work really hard to be successful.”

Neda Izadi continued to talk about the challenges faced by her and said, “Although I don’t make a lot of money, I love this job, I do it for passion. Artists do not make good money in Iran. Women face gender-based discriminations, cultural and social pressures. I feel like my rights have been violated because my work is not presented well here and I have to censor myself. I am happy to meet lots of people thanks to my profession. I spend most of my time playing instruments and illustrating. My life is intertwined with art.”