Good Girl

Performance Art | Feminista Melbourne

Good Girl is a performance piece that speaks to the quiet violence and quiet resistance embedded in the everyday life of many Iranian queer individuals—those who live the most extraordinary versions of ordinary lives.

It tells the story of a “good girl” who has endured 44 years of imposed piety and control. She was made to pray at the age of nine, though she didn’t yet understand why. She wore the scarf even earlier. As she grew, the scarf grew with her darker, tighter, longer. Her love, her body, her life were never hers to claim. They ruled every intimate detail of her existence.

But the “good girl” is dead now.

She didn’t wait to be rescued. She set fire to her scarf in the street. She stood fierce and unflinching against the very people who dared to sell her heaven in exchange for her silence.

Good Girl is a performance of grief, rage, liberation, and transformation. It is a tribute to those who resist, and a reminder of the strength of rebellion in the face of injustice.

Written by Nazanin BT and Aida, performed by both, with a Tonbak performance by Jahan X, this work debuted as part of a public performance by Feminista Melbourne.