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25 Shoes / 25+ Cities

A Global Art Call to END violence against
Women in Iran, Afghanistan, and Across the Middle East

To honor November 25, 2025 — International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women

Why Now?

This year, the headlines came fast and brutal:
25 women killed in the first 24 days of the year in Iran.
By fathers. By brothers. By husbands.
At home. In counseling offices. At work. In the street.
By gun. By knife. By axe. By hammer.

We asked ourselves:
What can we do?
While borders and power divide us, our wounds are often the same. This movement calls us to rise together—
from mourning to meaning, from silence to solidarity.

"25 Shoes / 25 Cities+” is our canvas for justice.

Inspired by Mexican artist Elina Chauvet’s iconic Red Shoes installation, staged in over 80 cities worldwide,
Iranian Women in Network (IWIN) is launching a bold global adaptation for 2025.

We are inviting 25+ cities to take part in a global public art action.
Each city will install 25 pairs of red shoes in a public space on November 25, 2025, to honor women in Iran and Afghanistan whose voices have been silenced by violence.

- Each pair of shoes = one silenced voice
- Each city = a symbolic twin to a city in Iran or Afghanistan
- Each act = a step toward the right to live free and unafraid

Our Vision

On November 25, 2025,
in 25+ cities around the world,
25 pairs of red shoes will stand in public squares
San Francisco–Saravan, New York for Tehran, Oakland for Herat, Berlin for Kabul,...
each city linked with a place where the same installation could not be safely staged.

We are also inviting Afghan and Iranian high school youth in the Bay Area to participate; Painting shoes, designing posters, and sharing stories—learning the power of art as resistance and voice.

This initiative has two main goals:

To raise global awareness about the deeply rooted and often invisible systems of patriarchy that continue to endanger Iranian, Afghan, and Middle Eastern women; even in exile, as they seek safety, freedom, and justice.
To offer meaningful solidarity by pairing U.S. cities with “sister cities” in the Middle East, where women cannot safely protest or create public art. These symbolic pairings will serve as a platform for collective remembrance, resistance, and amplified visibility for those whose voices are silenced.

Our Impact Goals

Build global and cross-cultural solidarity through art and shared action
Engage communities in creative civic expression via workshops and storytelling
Produce tangible artistic outputs; painted shoes, quilts, postcards, and pins
Raise funds to support local and underground women’s shelters
Document and amplify voices through a video archive shared across Iranian and global media
Expand our Women. Life. Freedom. quilt project as a lasting, growing archive of resistance and remembrance

We've done this before

This is IWIN’s fourth global call to action. During the pandemic shutdown, we launched two virtual exhibitions
for November 25, 2021 , and March 8, 2022 amplifying women's voices across borders. Most recently,
we initiated the Women. Life. Freedom Quilt Project—a living archive of over 600 art pieces inspired
by the AIDS Memorial Quilt, honoring the courage of women rising up in Iran and beyond.