An artist who painted a portrait of his ‘dream woman’ met his wife a year later, who happened to look exactly like the woman in the painting.
Ahad Saadi, a successful artist, had long been pressured to get married by his mother.
In 2008, as a result of the growing pressure, he decided to paint the woman of his dreams.
Using a branch of art known as ‘Azarnegari’, which involves creating art by burning various fabrics with fire, he completed the portrait of his future wife.
He went on to display the piece at the Huner-i Mukaddes Gallery, which means ‘Holy Art’, in the city of Tabriz, Iran, at the end of 2009.
During the exhibition, fellow artist Parisa Karamnezhad, 39, was shocked when she came across a painting that made her feel like she was looking in a mirror. Little did she know it had been painted by her future husband.
Ahad said seeing Parisa in his exhibition for the first time gave him an “indescribable” feeling.
Parisa said: “One evening, my boyfriend Kave called and said there was an extraordinary exhibition, and we should go. At first, I didn’t want to go. When Kave insisted, I accepted.
“When we walked into the exhibition, Ahad was drawing attention because he was the artist.”
“At that moment, I realised that a woman next to Ahad was looking at me and touching his arm. She said something to him, and Ahad looked at us with searching eyes.”
Parisa and her boyfriend at the time began to look at the various pieces of work by Ahad that she described as “truly impressive.”
She said: “After passing in front of a few paintings we arrived at the portrait that changed my life. A portrait of a smiling woman with curly hair.
“We froze in front of the portrait for a few seconds. I felt a strange closeness. I turned to my boyfriend and asked, ‘Does this portrait look like me?'”
Her boyfriend replied “kind of” and walked off but Parisa could not move as she fixated on what looked like a near-perfect reflection of her face, eyes and long curly hair.
Parisa left the exhibition still with her boyfriend unable to stop thinking about Ahad and his painting.
She spoke to a friend shortly after the exhibition, who she said was “more excited” than her and wanted to know what was going on.
The following day Parisa went back to the exhibition along with her excited friend and met Ahad, who greeted them excitedly as they walked through the door.
Parisa took her friend to see the painting while Ahad attended to his other guests.
Parisa’s friend told her she didn’t know what the story of the painting was, but guessed that Ahad was “madly in love” with her.
Ahad said that he did not see the love of his life for the following year and a half but eventually found her on Facebook and reached out.
By this point, Parisa has left her boyfriend and she agreed to have dinner with Ahad.
Parisa said that when he saw her they hugged tightly and he whispered in her ear: “You don’t know how much I love you”.
Ahad, who had only seen Parisa twice before in his life, proposed to her during the dinner date.
Parisa was taken back by the proposal and said she needed time to think about it but the next day she contacted Ahad and said yes.
She said that her mum could not believe that she was marrying someone on such short notice but after explaining the events that led to the decision, she said: “She sighed in relief and was deeply touched by the story”.
Both Parisa and Ahad said meeting one another was one of the greatest moments of their lives, while getting married had made the pair the happiest they had ever been.
Ahad’s mother was reportedly also very happy about the marriage.