Rashin Fahandej

The first chapter of the project was exhibited at the Boston Artist in Residence in 2017 and was later exhibited at the Boston Center for the Arts and HUBweek, We The Future in 2018, then at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston in 2019.

Fahandej later moved to the United States and began studying at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2002, receiving her Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in 2006. She then attended the San Francisco Art Institute in 2008 and received her Master of Fine Arts Degree in 2010. After graduation, Fahandej became a guest lecturer and teaching assistant at multiple universities in the United States, such as Brown University, the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Bunker Hill Community College, as well as the San Francisco Art Institute. She also works as a professional artist in Boston, Massachusetts. Her work is based on the themes of social justice and blending technology with art. She works in a range of media, such as documentary film, video/sound installations, performance, relational art, photography and painting. Her artworks have been shown both in the United States and internationally. In 2015, Fahandej joined the Boston AIR:City of Boston Artist in residence program in which she explored alternate modes of documentary filmmaking and strived to increase equity through educational art and media programs. In 2016, Fahandej received a fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Documentary Lab. In 2019, she won the James and Audrey Foster Prize, which strives to support and recognize Boston-area artists by allowing them to display their artworks at the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art.

As a child, Fahandej was segregated from her classmates at school. She grew up being taunted and discriminated against. Although Bahá'ís were allowed to attend school during their younger years, they were prohibited from studying at a university, which is why Fahandej attended a secret underground college created by Bahá'ís from 1996 to 2000. Her family then received one-way passports that allowed them to flee Iran as refugees and move to a small town in Turkey.

Rashin Fahandej was born in Shiraz, Iran in 1978. Her family was a part of the Bahá'í religious group, which has been heavily persecuted in Iran throughout history. It was common for Bahá'ís to have their houses raided, be imprisoned, or killed for their faith.