Project Details
In this blog post, Namita and April explore the intersection of human rights and art through an interview with Saghi Ehteshamzadeh.
By Namita Giri (BA, Double Major in Psychology and International Relations, Team Member for the Human Rights Collective) & April Park (BA, Major in International Relations, Team Member for the Human Rights Collective)
We first met Saghi Ehteshamzadeh when she spoke as a panelist at the Human Right Collectives’ event, “Beyond boundaries: Exploring Human Rights Activism Across Professions”. Her reflections highlighted the power of art to communicate complex truths and mobilize grassroot activism. This insight inspired us to further explore the role of arts in human rights advocacy, an exploration that unfolds through three themes discussed in our interview: Art as Solidarity, Art as Revolution and Saghi’s Artistic Muse and Advocacy.
Saghi Ehteshamzadeh is an interdisciplinary artist and curator who creates art to transform lived experience into collective resistance. She uses art as a tool to raise awareness of disability, social justice, and women’s equality in Iran, among other issues. Currently, they work as the Arts Events Officer at Douglas College.
Saghi’s work illustrates how art can move self-expression to become a powerful catalyst for human rights activism and helps connect individual stories to a broader movement for justice.
Art as Solidarity
Figure 1: Highlights from the A Journey Through Scoliosis exhibition (2021) by Saghi Ehteshamzadeh.
During a recent interview, we asked Saghi what experiences or questions led her to explore art as a way to engage with human rights issues. Saghi shared that her earliest project, A Journey Through Scoliosis, marked the beginning of this path. Through photographing her spine and reframing her disability as beauty, she created space for dialogue about the mental and emotional impacts of scoliosis. As she developed the project, she met others who shared similar experiences, and quickly realized how little public awareness existed about the psychological impacts of the condition. Saghi remarked, “[This] was the point where I thought that through this art project, I [aspire] to promote body positivity and use it as a platform to raise awareness on the mental side effects of scoliosis.” A project that had begun as a personal exploration evolved into a shared space of connection where people could see themselves in one another’s stories. Art became a source of solidarity that transformed vulnerability into collective support. This experience shaped the foundation of her commitment to socially engaged art.
Art as Revolution
The “Women, Life, Freedom” movement, an uprising that started in Iran in the year 2022, became a turning point for Saghi. As an Iranian woman based in Vancouver, although Saghi couldn’t partake in the protests, she used art to expose state violence and amplify the voices of Iranian women. Saghi remarked, “After navigating years of censorship in Iran, I learned how to embed meaning through creative storytelling”. By hiding political messages in symbolism and subtle narrative cues, she transformed their work into what she calls a “treasure hunt of truth”. For Saghi, art became a form of revolution, a way to assert truth even when their voice was forced into silence.
Figure 2: “Unveiling Their Power”, part of the Women, Life, Freedom exhibition (2023) by Saghi Ehteshamzadeh.
Saghi’s Artistic Muse and Advocacy
Saghi enthusiastically remarked that her strongest muses are Iranian women whose courage continues to guide her. She finds further inspiration from Indigenous artists and peers who champion diaspora voices. Saghi said, “their [Iranian women and Indigenous peers’] resistance shapes my commitment to creating art that reflects a collective struggle.” Her advocacy is rooted in one message she often returns to: resistance is love. It is love that brings communities together, sustains activists through barriers, and keeps hope alive even when progress feels slow.
Saghi’s work reminds us that art is inseparable from human rights. Art sparks solidarity, strengthens resistance and guides the community toward collective liberation. Through her practice, we see how creative expression becomes a bridge between personal experience and shared understanding, between storytelling and revolutionary defiance. Saghi’s journey affirms that art is not only a reflection of injustice, but an active force in confronting it — one that preserves truth and amplifies silenced voices. In centering creativity as a tool for justice, Saghi’s work invites us to reimagine the role art plays in shaping a more equitable world.
To explore more of Saghi’s work, visit her portfolio: https://www.saghi.ca/
For future reflection on the role of creativity in human rights advocacy, we invite you to read another piece written by our fellow colleague Michelle Reed on Art as Power: Defending Human Rights Through Creativity.