Kiana Hayeri grew up in Tehran, where the country’s morality police restricted her public behavior. She left in 2005 when she was 17 and moved to Toronto, where she studied photography at Ryerson University.
Ms. Hayeri returned to Iran in 2010 to explore the dual lives of many young women who are expected to behave and dress modestly in public by covering their hair, arms and legs. But behind closed doors, these women act very much like Ms. Hayeri’s Canadian friends — dating, singing, studying ballet and even swimming.
Ms. Hayeri does not claim that her project represents the entirety of Iran. But she said there are many young people in the big cities who yearn for a less constricting public life.
“It’s a whole world that many Americans are unaware of,” she said. “Nowadays, with all this talk about war, sanctions and nuclear weapons, people tend to forget about ordinary people, the actual people who live in Iran, and they only look at the government.”
- Preparing for paintball, a sport forbidden to women
- Maryam and her boyfriend drive around the city. Men and Women in a car together invites extra scrutiny by the morality police.
- Girls in a park let their hijabis fall to their shoulders.
- Women are not allowed to swim in public, even fully clothed.
- Even though bold makeup is a concern for the morality police, Mina readied herself to go out.
- Saba.
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A German prisoner of war lights the cigarette of a British soldier, World War I.
Nationaal Archief
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Mark Gatiss, Benedict Cumberbatch, Andrew Scott and Lara Pulver at the British Academy Television Awards 2012
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