#NotACrime Sydney: Giles Fryer, Krimsone and Scott Nagy

The #NotACrime global street art campaign teamed up with curators and street artists in New York City, as well as in Brazil, South Africa, and Australia, to produce murals highlighting the Iranian government’s ban on Baha’is pursuing further education in Iran.

IranWire's new series featuring the artists and their murals will continue over the coming months as the #NotACrime project spreads to more cities around the world.

Three Australian, Sydney-based artists collaborated on a mural, displaying it on the famous Bondi Beach to support the #NotACrime campaign.

Beach-goers seeking some sunshine on Bondi beach were greeted with a scene of spray cans and splashes of colour on January 13 — all in the name of education equality in Iran.

“I am a strong believer in access to universal human rights in their various forms; they should be respected and adhered to,” said Giles Fryer, mural artist and coordinator of Street Art Murals Australia (SAMA), a non-profit organization that connects young emerging artists to commercial work or campaigns like #NotACrime. 

“We want to talk about the very serious issues of the persecution of the Baha’i community,” said Fryer, “but we want to do it in a way that leaves the viewer with an affirmative, positive message so they want to take action — or at least leaves them with the memory of what the issue is about.” The final mural shows a colourful painting of a young girl looking into the distance with books coming to life and flying around her.

This is the second Australian mural for the campaign from artists Krimsone and Scott Nagy. The three artists came together, each bringing their own designs to the project, which they then integrated into the final piece. The creation of the mural — the sight of a mural being painted on the beach — became something of an event, with volunteers wearing #NotACrime T-shirts and speaking to passersby about human rights issues in Iran. ABC News covered the mural and global campaign, featuring it in a five-minute news broadcast that included an interview with Didar Zowghi, Professor of Software Engineering at UTS, Sydney and volunteer teacher at the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education (BIHE).

The BIHE is an underground university set up by Baha’i students, who continue to be denied access to university in Iran. Classes are often taught over Skype and 69 universities around the world, including Yale and Columbia, accept qualifications from this institution.

"The beautiful art works in these large scale public mural projects draw attention to the fact that Baha'is in Iran have been denied university education for more than 30 years," said Venus Khalessi, spokesperson for the Australian Baha’i community.

“All young people should be able to freely imagine and create their own futures, dreams and hopes,” said Fryer when asked about his thoughts on education equality. “All people are the same in that aspect. If you limit their access to education and opportunities, that is where you have negative effects.”

Murals have gone up all around the world as part of this global campaign and can be seen on the campaign’s website at: notacrime.me

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