Shirin Neshat, born on March 26, 1957, is an Iranian visual artist and photographer residing in New York City. She is primarily celebrated for her contributions to film, video, and photography. Her artistic endeavors focus on the dichotomies between Islam and Western cultures.

Neshat's initial creations were photographs, including the iconic Unveiling (1993) and the Women of Allah series. These works delve into themes of femininity filtered through the lens of Islamic fundamentalism and militancy in her homeland. To bridge the gap between the culture she was living in and the pre-revolution Iran from which she hails, she crafted her first major series, the Women of Allah, featuring portraits of women adorned with intricate Persian calligraphy.

Her work explores the social, cultural, and religious frameworks of Muslim societies, delving into the intricate dualities between concepts like masculinity and femininity. Neshat often highlights this topic by presenting multiple films side by side, generating striking visual contrasts through elements like light versus dark, black versus white, and male versus female. Additionally, Neshat has created more conventional narrative short films, including Zarin.

Neshat received an honorary professorship from the Universität der Künste in Berlin. In 2006, she was honored with The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, which is one of the most prestigious awards in the arts, presented each year to "an individual who has made a remarkable contribution to the beauty of the world and humanity's enjoyment and understanding of life."

Examples below of her powerful work