Saba Khansari : 5 Iranian Photographers

After the establishment of the Islamic Republic in Iran in January 1979, the government applied strict rules restricting the freedom of women. From two months after the revolution women had no right to appear in public without wearing the hijab These laws made it harder and harder for women to express their own identity: but women never stopped fighting for their rights. The last and most important show of solidarity followed the killing of Jina-Mahsa-Amini by the morality police in Tehran, in 2022. Resistance united behind ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ and the slogan spread quickly to other cities in Iran and to other countries. During four months of action an estimated 530 protestors were killed by the security forces. A significant number of those deaths occurred as a result of direct gunfire on the streets, while other protestors were taken, tortured and killed in prison. Although protests may have stopped over time women in Iran continue to resist the enforced wearing of the hijab in public, going out in the streets with their hair flowing ensuring the flame of emancipation remains.