A British-Iranian artist has captured the strength and bravery of Iranian women throughout the 20th century in an exhibition in London.
Soheila Sokhanvari's exhibition in the Curve Gallery in London’s Barbican presents portraits of women from a pivotal era in Iranian history who played a part in battling oppression.
The exhibition resonates even more due to the current protests in Iran, sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who has become a symbol of resistance.
Her death while in the custody of the morality police has given rise to widespread protests both inside and outside the country, with many demonstrators putting their lives in danger by dancing in the streets and burning their hijabs.
Sokhanvari's exhibition — which draws its name, Rebel Rebel, from David Bowie's 1974 pop song — examines the contradictions of Iranian women's lives during the period before the shah was overthrown.
While compared to the current regime it may appear to have been liberal, before the revolution, Iran's patriarchal system was still very much present and silenced any oppositional voices.
Nevertheless, there were women who fully embraced modernity and modernism, and Sokhanvari's exhibition focuses on those who tried to escape the captivity of age-old societal roles.
The exhibition features 31 portraits of famous Iranian women, including Faegheh Atashin, known as Googoosh. Each portrait is hung in the middle of hand-painted geometric Islamic murals.
It describes Googoosh as “perhaps the biggest star of 20th-century Iran and a true cultural icon for Iranians everywhere”.
Regarding her career, it says: “Googoosh began performing aged only three, and made her first film at the age of seven, becoming a child star. She continued acting but is best known for her prolific music-making, which took inspiration from western pop, funk and soul.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, she released more than 200 songs. She was also beloved for her sense of style, popularising the miniskirt as well as a short haircut that became known as the “Googooshy”.
At the time of the Islamic revolution, she was travelling abroad, but she chose to return to Iran. She was jailed for a short time before being released on the condition that she would no longer sing in public.
“They tried hard to erase me — I mean, erase my name, erase my position, erase my songs, erase my face, erase the memory of me,” she recalled. “But they couldn't.”
Following the revolution, many feminist icons were arrested and forced to renounce all public activities or be exiled.
Rebel Rebel can be viewed at the Curve Gallery in London’s Barbican until February 26.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
