Paralleling the strict segregation of sexes that the Islamic Republic has imposed in Iran, the male screen shows a male singer singing a traditional Sufi song of love after a poem by the Persian mystic Jalal al-Din Rumi for a group of men. On the opposite female screen, a woman clad in the Islamic black chador stands on a stage, facing the empty seats of another auditorium, waiting, listening. However, when the man finishes, despite the rules that forbid women from singing in public, she begins to sing a personal vocalisation, breaking through the screens barrier, transfixing the men, who cannot help but turn toward her and star intently at her. The flow of power is reversed, all codes of modesty and public decorum are violated, all social rules broken by her passionate performance.
(abstract from: Hamid Naficy, Parallel Worlds, Shirin Neshat's video works, Kunsthalle Wien -Serpentine Gallerry London, 2000)