As one of the most controversial presidents in American history was being inaugurated 1,500 miles away in Washington D.C., a blindfolded Muslim man clothed in all black took his position in the lobby of the LSU College of Art and Design building. The sign he brought read: “I am a Muslim. Your president calls me a terrorist. Do you trust me?” The sign then invited passersby to hug him if they trusted him or hit him if they didn’t.
The performer was University photography graduate student Erfan Ghiasi. As a Muslim immigrant from Iran, Ghiasi said he feels threatened by increasingly vocal anti-Muslim sentiment in the highest levels of federal government, specifically from President Donald Trump. This inspired him to express himself through the medium he knows best: art.
“To quote Nina Simone, ‘An artist’s duty is to reflect the times.’ This is my time here. I’m in Trump-land. My work must be political because I’m a Muslim in the United States,” Ghiasi said.
He staged his protest on Jan. 20 to add context to the piece and share his response to the hallmark day as a Muslim artist.
Ghiasi said he was inspired by a video he saw on social media of an Arab celebrity making a similar statement.
However, Ghiasi wasn’t always so politically motivated. Before coming to the University, Ghiasi studied cinematography in Tehran, Iran. On coming to America, he felt he had to change his photographic focus from fine art to more political subjects. The 2016 election gave him context in which to put his newfound creative freedom to work. Creative freedom, he found, didn’t protect him from controversy.
Two and a half hours into his performance, LSUPD was called to escort him out of the building.
“I told the police this was an approved performance, but they didn’t listen to me,” Ghiasi said. “When my teacher Malcolm [McClay] came in and talked to them, they started to listen to him because he was white. That was the whole point of my performance.”
Ghiasi said LSUPD were “relatively gentle” compared to what he’s used to in Iran.
Other students approached Ghiasi while he was blindfolded with messages of peace and unity. One student told him that although they were a Trump supporter, they didn’t consider him a terrorist and wanted to communicate to him that not all of the President’s supporters had the same ideology.
Despite the harshening environment for Muslims in America and his recent run-in with LSUPD, Ghiasi said he still sees America as a departure from the restrictive culture in Iran.
“I couldn’t do the same performance in Iran. I would be in jail 100 percent as an Iranian,” Ghiasi said. “But here, I did this performance as an immigrant. Just imagine an immigrant from Afghanistan doing something like this in Iran.”
Ghiasi’s greatest fear going forward is the implementation of Donald Trump’s promised ban on Muslims. As an international student, Ghiasi is worried he may not be able to return to Iran at this point without the possibility of being denied re-entry into the United States. As a graduate student in a three-year program in the United States on a two-year visa, Ghiasi’s future education hangs in the balance of soon-to-be-announced executive actions revolving around the admittance of citizens of several Middle Eastern nations, Iran being one of them.
“I’m here to build a new career, a new life and I’m not sure if I can do that,” Ghiasi said. “I didn’t just come here to get a degree. I could have just stayed in Iran to do that.”
Despite the tumultuous political environment, and increasing anti-Muslim policy, Erfan remains hopeful for improved relations between the Middle East and the United States, and others in the University community seem to reflect his positive outlook.
“While I was doing the performance, someone hugged me and whispered in my ear ‘We are stronger together.’”

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Ryan McCarble

Graduate student Erfan Ghiasi discusses his political performance from Inauguration Day on Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2017.