From the Painting Guide: There is symbolism in this painting which I cannot interpret, such as what are the birds and the arrows? And is that a crown in the top left-hand corner? (An artist's statement could provide the viewer with such information.) What I find intriguing is the entanglement in a double helix (the two linked strips that form DNA) with one strip having angles and red lines while the other has curves. Traditional Islamic art is non-representational and angular (think of tiled walls on mosques). What we have here is the intermingling of a traditional angular form with a serpentine (curvy) form. They're linked but still separate from each other. They're twisting around each other sizing each other up. The flight of the birds and the ladder stretching up towards the moon imply a yearning desire to reach some ideal. The crescent moon may, of course, have an obvious symbology (given the title's reference to Iran).