A dance piece about the situation of FLINTA people in Iran seems to be a contradiction in terms - after all, dancing in public is forbidden, especially for women and female-presenting bodies and persons. Hiraeth Kollektiv has enlisted the musical support of STERNA | PAU in order to take this dance prohibition as a starting point for short-circuiting different themes and different forms of performance with each other. In the midst of the entrenched discourses that argue either for or against headscarves, hijabs and chadors, the artists of the HIRAETH Collective, themselves with Iranian and Afghan migration history, have decided to appropriate the discourse. They develop on stage, with music and dance, with sounds and movement: the third narrative.

In the polarised world of the so-called "West" vis-à-vis the "Islamic Republic of Iran" women are very often portrayed wearing a "chador" - both by a conservative, islamophobic, but at the same time also a pseudo-feminist, seemingly progressive view. The western version of the story, from an ignorant orientalist perspective, very often shows the chador as a sign of the "unimaginable situation" of the "oppressed" women in Iran, without presenting the struggle of these women in its complexity. Either this struggle is not seen at all or it is presented in a very simplified way. The Islamic Republic itself propagates the chador as "the better hijab", so women who fight every day against wearing the chador in everyday life are systematically invisible in Iran.

In this case, the history of Iran since the 1979 revolution is being looked at from a very personal perspective. Different perspectives are taken. The dispute over the Hijab has become a political struggle and it has always been a political struggle. "The Third Narrative" looks back into history and at women who took to the streets against Khomeini's order for forced veiling as early as 1979 (8 March) after the revolution. The play aims to make accessible the position of these women in Iran over the past decades. However, "The Third Narrative" is above all a dance piece: the choreography is a transcription of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker's production "Fase", an iconic work from the second half of the 20th century. However, unlike De Keersmaeker's work, the choreography is not accompanied by minimalist music, but by feminist punk music.

Hiraeth Kollektiv

consists of women of colour from Iran and Afghanistan. They are performers, writers, journalists and artivists. They are concerned with the intersection of performance and politics. The core team includes Mina Khani, Zahra Mousawi and Yasmin Fahbod.

STERNA │ PAU Produktionen

is a theatre and performance network from Bochum, Berlin and Dortmund. The core team includes Maren Becker, Laura Pföhler and Jolanda Uhlig. They were last seen at the Theater im Depot with the feminist punk performance "The Hex Pistols".

By and with Hiraeth Kollektiv und STERNA | PAU
Concept, artistic direction and performance: Yasmin Fahbod
Performance: Shirin Namazi
Music: Maren Becker, Laura Pföhler
Costumes: Jolanda Uhlig
Dramaturgy and Concept: Mina Khani