In Central Asian nations, the monobrow is a symbol of feminine elegance. In a bid to embrace her ethnic identity, Uyghur artist Guzel Zakir dedicates her art.

In the past, monobrows were painted to resemble the horns of a cow. The cow is an ancient symbol of abundance and fertility, the Sun, and the Moon. The cow represents the Universe, and her milk — the Milky Way itself. A woman with a monobrow holds this cosmology together on her forehead.

Resisting it as a child, Zakir has now come to see the monobrow as a superpower, an attribute of decolonisation and cultural revival. Through it, the artist also feels more connected to her mother and her mother’s Uyghur roots.