The most beautiful Persian woman

I always thought that a woman out of a Persian Miniature will be known as the Iranian Marianne—maybe something like this dreamy painting by Farah Ossouli:

farah ossouli adam and eve painting three angels watching michele roohani

or the ageless super model, Yasmin Parvaneh (picture on the left) or her daughter Amber Le Bon (on the right):

yasmin parvaneh amber le bon michele roohani persian

It could have been one of the young beautiful movie stars or myriads of miscellaneous beauty queens or even one of these two who represent the separate worlds of today’s Iranian women:

iranian women worlds apart

Little did we know that an unknown young woman, Neda Agha Soltan, killed ruthlessly in the Iranian election protests last month would be the face of the Persian woman to the world…

jacques brinon AP neda iranian protests

Neda was a “casualty” of the conflict; she gave a face to the faceless victims. May she not have been killed in vain…

melvin sokolsky twiggy masks michele roohani

I am sure Melvin Sokolsky doesn’t mind the great Reza being inspired by him in making the Neda masks.