#NotACrime Global Street Art: Rio De Janeiro

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 create murals highlighting Iran’s human rights situation — and in particular, the fact that it denies the country’s Baha'i religious minority access to higher education.

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.

As part of the #NotACrime campaign, Brazilian artists worked alongside the Baha’i community to expose human rights violations in Iran – focussing on the denial of access to education for Baha’is. The launch of the campaign in Brazil began with a pavement intervention in Copacabana, Rio De Janeiro during a city-wide arts festival. 

Artists Mercelo Melo and Gustavo Amaral cordoned off the main roads to create the street art mural, which  measured 10 by 15 meters. “This project was literally able to bring this human rights issue to the streets, instead of keeping it inside galleries or circumscribed to a selected group of people,” said Mary Aune, assistant on the Brazil-based project.

The mural depicts a sapling growing out of a broken tree, highlighting how the Baha’i community of Iran continue to seek knowledge despite the Iranian government’s efforts to bar them from it. The artists took their inspiration from The Baha’i Institute of Higher Education (BIHE), the underground university providing young Baha’is with an education in Iran. The certificates from the BIHE are currently recognized by 69 global universities, including Yale and John Hopkins. 

Several major Brazilian news outlets including A Tarde, the largest newspaper in Brasilia, covered the mural and campaign on their front page. The Brazilian Baha’i Facebook page involved over 20,000 people in a conversation about the right of Baha’is to an education in Iran. 

“People were keen to participate in the campaign – free of charge, for the good of humanity,” said Aune when asked about the #NotACrime project. “It was a fantastic feeling to receive this kind of response.” The painting of the mural was captured by drone footage, and has been edited into a short documentary, which can be viewed on the campaign Facebook page Education Is Not A Crime.

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#NotACrime Global Street Art: Johannesburg

#NotACrime: A Global street art project for human rights in Iran

#NotACrime Street Art Provokes Debate in NYC