Fear of not integrating into the new society causes many immigrant women to conceal important aspects of their selves. Silence is one of the most common practices of self-censorship among these women; they remain silent in order to protect themselves from any risk of social harm and to avoid being misunderstood by others. This form of self-censorship paradoxically enables these individuals to integrate or to remain integrated into the adopted society.
I wrote this paper in parallel to my text-based sculptural works showcased in my MFA thesis exhibition Agreeable Silence to reflect my personal experience, as well as my theoretical and visual investigation. I argue that while multilayered intrapsychological issues that immigrant women face when they practice self-censorship may seem a mundane and a harmless means of adaptation, it can cause lingering psychological effects such as depression on them. I believe that receiving country's sociocultural norm can play an important role in the aggravation of this phenomenon, so through this visual and textual project my aim is to encourage my audience to think about the issue of immigrant women’s self-censorship and its relationship to depression.