Iran

[themoho]

امام زاده قاسم (ع)

[masembe]

Shirin (2008) - Abbas Kiarostami

It took me a long time on this earth to understand that the joys of life are like the caress of a feather on the palm of your hand. Pleasurable at first, but a real torment if it endures.

[farsizaban-deactivated20180323]

Mahdishahr, Semnan, Iran

[iranianpeach]

my aunt took me out for breakfast to the cutest café ever (esfahan / iran)

[aftaabmahtab]

Shahrzad (2016)

[mideast-nrthafrica-cntrlasia-de]

North Tehran Towers - Tehran, Iran

[xvarenah-deactivated20180316]

Nasir al-mulk mosque also known as the Sunlit Mosque In Southern Iran.

[xvarenah-deactivated20180316]

Vank Cathedral in Isfahan, Iran.

 The Vank Cathedral was established by the Armenian community which is still present in modern-day Isfahan. The church was built in the mid 1600s and the interior is covered with fine paintings and tiled work depicting events from the life of Jesus as well as the torture inflicted upon Armenian martyrs at the hands of the Ottomans

[farsizaban-deactivated20180323]

Ancient Atashkadeh (Zoroastrian fire tower) Isfahan, Iran

[farsizaban-deactivated20180323]

Life in a village in Sistan va Baluchistan province, Iran

[golezahra]

Esfahan, Iran

[darksilenceinsuburbia]

Mona Hoobehfekr: Iranian Makeup

Wearing a hijab became compulsory in Iran during the first few months after the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Since then, women, and especially girls, gradually started to care about their appearance more considering their new look. This became more popular among women after some time and famous makeup brands entered the market and Iranian girls became more willing to wear makeup.

These girls sometimes spend hours in front of the mirror to do their makeup and often spend a lot of time and money on this. However, the situation was quite different a few decades before when unmarried girls were not allowed to wear makeup; yet, it has become a routine for all walks of life in Iran. Iranian girls and women have different reasons for wearing makeup. One is that the compulsory hijab diverts and restricts beauty to the face, gradually becoming a significant part of Iranian culture. Nevertheless, there are still women and young girls who do not hide behind a mask of heavy makeup.

Currently, Iranians are annually spending about $2 million on toiletries and follow Saudi Arabia as the biggest consumer of toiletries in the Middle East. A significant proportion of the toiletries is imported into Iran through illegal ways. Using toiletries in Iran usually starts at the age of 14. There are approximately 14 million girls and women between 15-45 years residing in big cities of Iran and their average monthly income is $500-$600. According toTMBA, spending excessive amounts on toiletries in Iran is due to its large population of youth and urban-dwellers. Half of the Iranian population is below 30 and 65% of the total population resides in cities.

This report has covered the makeup phenomena among girls and women in Iran. Subjects of this report are females of 14-30 years selected from different socioeconomic levels and their photos were taken in similar conditions wearing their daily makeup. A toiletries bag contains some of the most personal belongings of a woman —and the items within it can often offer an inside glimpse or alternate take on a personal portrait.

Most women who participated in this project believe that the hijab is the main reason behind wearing heavy makeup. This series displays a typography of young Iranian women in 2015.

— Mona Hoobehfekr

[neuartig]

Smoggy Tehran by Mahdi Ehsaei

[unrar]

The citadel and mud city of Bam, Iran, Martin Gray.

[huffpost]

Tehran Becomes Giant Open-Air Art Gallery

The daily commute for many residents of Tehran, Iran, has gotten a little brighter – a much more cultural.

[5centsapound]

Laurence Rasti: “There are no homosexuals in Iran”

“In Iran, we do not have homosexuals like in your country.”

— Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, speaking at Columbia University, September 24, 2007.

While today some Occidental countries accept marriage for gays and lesbians, in Iran, homosexuality is still punishable by death. This sanction prohibits homosexuals to live their sexuality openly. Their only legal options are to leave the country, hide their sexuality, or choose transsexuality, a practice tolerated by law but considered as pathological.

In Denizli, a small town in Turkey, hundreds of Iranian gay refugees have put their lives on pause waiting to join one day a host country where they can freely live their sexualities. In this context of uncertainty where anonymity is the best protection, this series of photographs questions the fragile nature of  identity and gender concepts. It tries to give back to those people a face that their country has temporarily stolen. — Laurence Rasti

*my only modest critique of this project is that only male portraits are represented here….

**see also the excellent work of Zanele Muholi, working to represent the LGBT community in South Africa

[googooshftbollywoodandkpop]