September 2022 – Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman, died in Tehran while in the custody of the "morality” police after she was arrested for “improper hijab”. Days after her death, protesters flooded the streets chanting “Zan, Zendegi, Azadi.” 
 

“Women, Life, Freedom.”
 

A week before Mahsa’s death, Ava Alavi moved to Canada from Iran.

As her friends in Iran joined in yelling “Zan, Zendegi, Azadi”, Ava was here, safe but stuck. Shouting "Women, Life, Freedom" from thousands of miles away, she needed to do something. So she created Sound, merging her personal experiences as a woman raised in Iran with the broader political and social struggles unfolding in her home country.

Sound serves as both a personal and political act of storytelling, rooted in lived experience and collective resistance. It weaves together universal experiences: a first crush, a dress chosen to impress a boy, an embarrassing first kiss and learning about sex. But interwoven with these familiar moments are experiences likely unknown to Western audiences: wearing hijab for the first time, being made fun of for wearing hijab, learning the expectations of “religious responsibility” as a child, witnessing violent political protests, navigating the ever-present threat of the "morality” police, and the terror of rampant serial acid attackers.

While deeply autobiographical, Sound transcends one woman's story. Ava shares the experiences of other women in her life and traces the history of women's rights in Iran across generations. The sharing of Sound embodies this multiplicity by bringing together three women, all named Ava, learning to exist in many forms while revolution and war persist in her home.
 

Sound carries the echoes of generations of women living under oppression, their moments of silence, survival, and defiance merging into one collective voice. It serves as proof that in a place designed to erase them, to exist is to rebel.