Sunday, November 12, 2006

Pictorial Truth about Iranian Women


If you are an Iranian woman, I am sure you have been asked this question: "Are women allowed to go to university in Iran?" Of course that question may come after they have gotten over initial shock that an Iranian woman can look like you, can be world-savvy, can be fun-loving, can drive manual shifter cars, ... well yes ... perhaps they have assumed that it is the living in the West, for as long as you have, that has transmuted you into what you are, what you express, what you look like. But at some point, I got sick and tired of people's stereotypical views about Iranian women and I spent 48 hours gathering any women-related picture I could get my hands on, from internet and posting them here . If your browser works well, the photos are sorted narratively. "Some are sad, some are interesting, but all fascinating", said the professor for whom I made the collection. He had a bet with me to show him a picture of Iranian women playing soccer ... well, as you see I won!

Take a look, and send me anything interesting that comes your way.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Salam! thank you for your interest in my blog. I am myself new in this blogging stuff. I am sure you will enjoy that a lot, and we can have many did-o-bazdids:)

Anonymous said...

noticed a curious thing...
even your latest posts are getting archived under the year 2006 and the skew continues all the way to your oldest post... :)

hey naj.

need a ... err.. advice...
what is acceptable in street photography of a muslim woman (lets assume she is wearing a hijab)? especially if the photographer is a man...
I asked myself that question... for any person man or woman, you don't know what they will feel if they see themselves as a subject of another person's art(?!) without their consent... Some rights say: "what you see in 'plain view', you can capture and don't need consent"... but discretion says otherwise...

help?

Naj said...

Hi Iris,

(yes I know the archiving is bizarre! I have no clue why it's that way! Sloppy google I'd say)

What's acceptable in street photography? This is a good question; but I think there is no standard answer to it. It is very much a universal question though; don't you think?

I think our age of speedy-digital photography has added a new level of complexity to everything as well.

But, street photographers are in general invisible ones; like ghosts; aren't they? I think as long as one is anonymous to the eye of the Camera, one woudl really not care about her representation.

In one of my posts, you can fiond a BBC documentary called "inside Tehran". There you get to meet an Iranian female photographer, who is sent on assignment in the war zones of the middle east.

I wish I could be more helpful :/ but I can sare an observation with you:

I have a sister-in-law who is a professional photographer. She happens to be muslim too, a praticing one! She is always walking around with a camera and her camera is always rolling! I have never seen her ask permission. I get annoyed with her sometimes; because I am not anonymous to her and to her shots; and she seems to care little!

By the way, I removed the link to photos I had compiled. If you want, I can email it to you. I have a neoresistanceatgmaildotcom account!

Anonymous said...

Hey Naj,
thanks for the information!!

Though the scale of the matter is universal, I do believe that the answer is very much case to case. I understand about the anonymity. So long as the subject is not recognizable, it might be anyone and only the idea/the model aspect of the person remains. As for the street photographing ghosts, they have to be ghosts to observe things happening 'naturally'... no matter who it is, if the presence of a camera is known, it definitely makes the situation 'artificial'.

I can understand what you are saying about your sis-in-law :)... though i like taking photographs, I don't like being photographed at all! And I can imagine the annoyance when a camera keeps clicking at you :) LOL :)

Thanks for the mail id Naj. The link must be in my browser history...I am sure I clicked the link if it was there earlier (I dont remember since it was a while ago i checked out this post first). If I can't find it or need the link, I will send a mail.

Thank you so much.

Anonymous said...

ah! now i get it.
I thought you were talking about the yahoo photos link (BTW, that seems to be having problems too)... or was it indeed the one?
I forgot:), I cannot use mails Naj :)
I don't have regular/proper access to them.