{"id":1227,"date":"2018-02-13T18:43:39","date_gmt":"2018-02-13T18:43:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/?p=1227"},"modified":"2018-02-13T18:43:39","modified_gmt":"2018-02-13T18:43:39","slug":"an-iranian-photographers-unflinching-look-at-his-countrys-revolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/?p=1227","title":{"rendered":"An Iranian Photographer\u2019s Unflinching Look at His Country\u2019s Revolution"},"content":{"rendered":"

A group of women protesting against wearing the Islamic veil, while waving their veils in the air outside the office of the prime minister in Tehran, Iran, in March 1979.<\/p><\/div>\n

Kaveh Kazemi’s images of the Iranian revolution and its aftermath reveal the country’s transition from a different era, and a contrast with its social upheaval today.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Feb. 12, 2018 -The New York Times- By\u00a0Thomas Erdbrink \u2013 The image is one erased from official Iranian history books. Two women, both unveiled, have just been detained by Islamic volunteers with automatic rifles slung on their shoulders. The Iranian photographer\u00a0Kaveh Kazemi, 28 at the time, followed the women walking home after they had participated in a protest against the introduction of the compulsory veil. Dressed in denim, so fashionable at the time, they are escorted away.<\/p>\n

That picture, from 1979, captured the end of an era. Soon, Iran\u2019s parliament passed a law making the Islamic veil compulsory for all women, even visiting dignitaries and tourists. The country remains one of the few in the world to ask people to dress according to the state\u2019s wishes.<\/p>\n

Four decades later, some women have again taken to the streets, removing their veils in protest. Feb. 11 is the 39th anniversary of the revolution that ousted the Shah and led to the Islamic republic\u2019s creation. But instead of celebration, there is general dissatisfaction, as well as tensions over the economy and the political system. Nationwide protests that started in December lasted more than a week, leaving 25 people dead and nearly 5,000 detained.<\/p>\n

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Two women who protested being taken away by armed militia guards. CreditKaveh Kazemi\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

With cameras everywhere and an unending torrent of images on social media, we forget how photography documents history. In Iran, where the state has long tried to impose its own versions of the truth, Mr. Kazemi\u2019s work has aged particularly well. His images of the revolution, its aftermath and the war with Iraq have now been published in \u201cRevolutionaries, the First Decade,\u201d which shows that while today there is upheaval in Iran, and opponents abroad hail it as the start of a new revolution, it\u2019s still very far from those early tumultuous years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese events do not compare in any way,\u201d said Mr. Kazemi, who still works and lives in Tehran. \u201cIn 1978 and 1979 the people unanimously wanted the Shah out. Now there is disappointment among many, but the feeling is very different. Still the majority wants to see reforms within the existing system.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A woman holds up her hand in a gesture of defiance. Kaveh Kazemi\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

His book has been as successful as a photo book can be in Iran, perhaps because it offers an alternative \u2014 and more realistic \u2014 narrative of the events leading to the 1979 revolution and its aftermath. Over the decades, the Iranian state has smoothed over the early era\u2019s rawness, chaos and pain. Instead, state media and history books now portray it by relying on images of Ayatollah Khomeini\u2019s return from exile, masses cheering and a new, Islamic administration taking hold.<\/p>\n

Mr. Kazemi\u2019s images, taken for international publications like Newsweek and Stern, were a test of sorts for Iran\u2019s leaders, since censors at first wanted to remove some 20 images. \u201cThe publisher and I objected, saying we couldn\u2019t alter actual historic events,\u201d he said. \u201cThey reduced it to one image, not a bad score.\u201d<\/p>\n

That one objectionable picture is of a banner showing the late founder of the Islamic republic, Ayatollah Khomeini, with a protester\u2019s fist in front of it. \u201cI never understood what the issue was with that particular image,\u201d said Mr. Kazemi.<\/p>\n

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A demonstrator in Tehran holds a banner of Ayatollah Khomeini. Kaveh Kazemi\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

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Demonstrators looting government bureaus and banks, liquor shops, cabarets and cinemas during the revolution in Tehran. Kaveh Kazemi\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

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An Iranian revolutionary guard weeping by the body of his brother during heavy shelling by Iraqi forces at Sare Pole Zahab in Iran\u2019s Kermanshah Province. Kaveh Kazemi\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

The book shows many taboo topics, like a sequence of a post-revolution firefight between competing groups. Years of bloody infighting have long been ignored by the state media\u2019s narrative of Iran\u2019s visual contemporary history, with those in power preferring to pretend \u2014 with images at least \u2014 that they led the revolutionary vanguard from the start.<\/p>\n

His images show looting, burning and chaos during the revolution. During the war with Iraq, Mr. Kazemi accompanied soldiers to the front to show the agony of combat, rather than jubilant images of victorious soldiers that the state media preferred. He found people waiting for fuel in long ration lines, and went to houses destroyed by Iraqi missiles.<\/p>\n

He also followed protests where women refused to wear the Islamic veil, while men smile arrogantly at them. Official news media rarely show images of the transition years before the veil became compulsory, going as far as editing out those women without scarves for their archives.<\/p>\n

Mr. Kazemi waited decades before he could publish these pictures.<\/p>\n

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Members of Hezbollah mocking a woman who had taken off her veil in protest. Kaveh Kazemi\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

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Hezbollah forces attacking leftist students outside Tehran university campus in April, 1981. Kaveh Kazemi\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI did not want to compromise on the images I wanted to show and frankly, I thought for many years that getting a permit to publish such a book was a near-impossible dream,\u201d he said. The fact that he could publish his straightforward book now is a sign that there has been a change of view among some in the Iranian leadership. \u201cSomehow some reforms are working,\u201d he said, \u201cand those in power are much more realistic nowadays.\u201d<\/p>\n

His black and white images also show how long ago the revolution occurred: The anti-American slogans and murals feel dated, as do the mustaches, hippie pants and now-classic American cars. Iranian society has changed and modernized beyond recognition, but what remains a fixture are the ruling clerics with their turbans and cloaks.<\/p>\n

Mr. Kazemi has witnessed it all. The book\u2019s final pages are devoted to the death of Ayatollah Khomeini, a moment when many thought the Islamic republic would soon end. He showed the millions who flocked to his funeral, an event that stretched over several days of public mourning. After the funeral, a new leader was elected, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is still in power.<\/p>\n

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Ayatollah Khomeini, sitting on a balcony to the right, addressing clergymen who came to Jamaran mosque to see him on March 1, 1982.CreditKaveh Kazemi\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

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A veteran from revolutionary forces with severe face burns sitting next to his bride, beneath a photo of Ayatollah Khomeini, in a wedding arranged by the marriage bureau of the Martyrs Foundation in Tehran.CreditKaveh Kazemi\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

Mr. Kazemi has always been an outsider in Iran\u2019s journalistic circles, never belonging to any political faction. It\u2019s the only way to survive in a polarized country.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, photography is best at its simplest and purest form, looking at things directly,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s not just clicking the shutter, you also have to convey a message.\u201d<\/p>\n

What message exactly?<\/p>\n

\u201cTo put in perspective what you are witnessing.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A group of women Basiji, or mobilized volunteer forces, learning to use gas masks in case of a chemical attack by Saddam Hussein\u2019s government. 1988.CreditKaveh Kazemi\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

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Kaveh Kazemi’s images of the Iranian revolution and its aftermath reveal the country’s transition from a different era, and a contrast with its social upheaval today.\u00a0\u00a0 Feb. 12, 2018 -The<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[384],"class_list":["post-1227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-human-rights","tag-kaveh-kazemi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1227"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1228,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1227\/revisions\/1228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}