The University of Houston canceled an event honoring a statue that has been described as a satanic display of pro-abortion ideology.
The statue, displayed at the university from February 28 to October 31, 2024, was designed by artist Shahzia Sikander to “explore” the “ideas of cultural interconnectedness and female representation.”
“Witness,” as the statue is called, “represents an 18-foot golden female figure with arms and legs resembling intertwined roots. She is literally ungrounded, floating and resisting permanence, as she is part of a diaspora whose home is where she chooses,” according to Public Art University of Houston System (USH).
The female figure has “braids shaped like ram horns” and a skirt “adorned with Arabic writing in mosaic stating ‘havah,’ and its rings resemble the longitudinal and latitudinal lines on a globe, a proclamation of the figure’s authority in the world.”
Sikander described the statue as stemming from the “recent focus on reproductive rights” in the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. “In the process, is the dismissal, too, of the indefatigable spirit of women who have been collectively fighting for their right to their own bodies over generations,” Sikander said in a statement. “However, the enduring power lies with the people who step into and remain in the fight for equality. That spirit and grit is what I want to capture in both the sculptures.”
The other sculpture referenced in Sikander’s statement is one called “NOW,” a demand for abortion rights.
After pro-life organizations condemned the statue, the university canceled the opening ceremony for the satanic imagery, although UHS said the cancellation was “due to the unavailability of the artist.”
Olivia Torralba, the Legal Operations Supervisor for Students for Life of America, wrote, “Those passing by stated the statue was ‘creepy,’ ‘ugly,’ ‘weird,’ or even ‘anti-feminist.’”
President of Texas Right to Life John Seago told EWTN News Nightly that the statue “celebrate[s] disobedience from God through imagery that we find in the Bible.”
The statue was previously displayed in New York’s Madison Square Garden.
