Mehri Dadgar was born and raised in Iran and became interested in art at an early age. She became involved with religion and politics when she was 19.

Dadgar joined the movement against the Shah and participated in the 1979 revolution in Iran for more than two years.

Two and a half years after the revolution she was arrested for distributing pro-democracy newspapers in the streets of Tehran by the Islamic regime.
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After she spent five years in political prison, she wasn’t allowed to leave the country for eight years.

Before immigrating to the United States in 1994, she studied art at the Art University in Tehran.

 Since living in America, she has exhibited her paintings in Canada, Sweden, England, and the United States and received her MFA in Studio art with honors from the California State University of Long Beach.

IIn 2006, she won Golden "Remi" award at the 40th Annual Houston International Film Festival for her historical short film In the Grave that dealt with her political prison experience.

Since 1999, she attended conferences sponsored by the Iranian Women’s Studies Foundation at various universities.

Since the 2003 she has been studying the Quran and participating in Annual International Submitters Conference held in different states of United States of America.

These conferences focus on purifying religion of Islam from the false information injected into them through traditions and cultures.

Her work as an artist and her study, research and understanding of truth in the Quran that advocates peace has prepared her for lecturing at California universities
and libraries about misconceptions in Islam through Islamic Art in the hope of promoting understanding and tolerance among different faiths.

"The Ladies"

The girlish women in these fanciful, abstract poses are a departure from the mostly dark imagery of Mehri's earlier prison pictures.

They might be the fevered fantasies of a female prisoner in a place where even the idea of "fashion" was outlawed.

Though, they too, are in earth tones, Mehri introduced some colorful details, a little hope between all the browns.

The ladies depicted here are out of prison. As prisoners, they would not have appeared to be individuals;

 they would have appeared to be devoid of emotions or personality by virtue of their situation,
 
an impression compounded by the fact that they would all be dressed the same in a black chador.

But now, they are able to express their emotions and themselves and wear fashionable clothes that accentuate their femininity.

Life may still be hard, but there is some room for the beautiful things and indulgences that women are sometimes fond of.

This notwithstanding, their moods seem to range from joy to sadness, from anxiety to pride.