The Girls of Iran Still Breathe

This mural, painted in the Florentine District of Tel Aviv, was created in honor of the schoolgirls of Iran — young Persian girls poisoned by the Islamic Regime simply for going to school without head coverings. In several towns, authorities locked the classroom doors from the outside and pumped poisonous gas through the vents, turning spaces of learning into chambers of fear.

The little girl in the mural represents every one of them. Her soft smile, her small hands clutching a gas mask, and the words “Woman Life Freedom” behind her embody a defiant innocence. Even surrounded by a haze of toxic green, she stands in light. To her right, the verse from Proverbs 31:25 reads: “Strength and honor are her clothing, and she can laugh at the days to come.” That verse captures the unbreakable spirit of Persian women who, even after unimaginable cruelty, choose laughter over despair.

This work transforms tragedy into tenderness — horror into hope. It declares that the spirit of Persian women cannot be suffocated. It rises through art, through faith, and through the next generation. Created in Tel Aviv — a city that knows both conflict and rebirth — the mural bridges two nations who understand that freedom is sacred and that beauty itself can be an act of resistance.

Why this work moved me personally

When I first heard that little girls in Iran were being poisoned in their own classrooms, I felt a pain that no headline could contain. The image of a child, coughing and crying behind locked doors, haunted me. I knew I had to give them back their dignity — to paint one of them smiling. That smile, to me, is everything. It is courage without armor, faith without words.

As I painted her on a wall in Florentine, surrounded by the noise and color of Tel Aviv, I realized that this mural wasn’t just about Iran — it was about every child who deserves to breathe freely, to learn without fear. It became my prayer on a wall, a small act of repair against an ocean of cruelty. Through her smile, the world can see that even when innocence is attacked, hope refuses to die.