My Iranian Journey
The collection of my photographs tells partly the story of my journey from Iran, myhomeland, to Norway, my current country of residence. I started my work as aprofessional photographer in 2005 and worked at one of Iran's largest newsagencies for four years. During this period I was able to travel to many parts of Iran and take photographs. The experience helped me to gain a deeper understanding of the problems that existed in the Iranian society. The majority of the Iranian people dream of political and social freedom, but sadly this is just a dream because the Islamic Republic regime, like a dictator, suppresses the voices of dissent. I was one of those people, who had to leave Iran because I took photographs of the demonstrators protesting the results of 2009 presidential elections. I had to go to Turkey and apply for asylum.
Moments of Freedom
Tens of thousands of people leave Iran every year, impelled by a lack of political, religious, economic and social freedom to go in search of a better life. The majority of people fleeing the country go to the UK, Turkey or Germany. I never imagined myself as one of these thousands of Iranians to have left their homeland, but I had to flee Iran in 2009. The government had issued an arrest warrant for me, after my images of the Iranian uprising of that year had been published abroad. I fled to Turkey, and after 16 months of hope and expectation, Norway finally accepted me as a refugee. In my new life I have met up with many fellow Iranian immigrants and refugees. They all have different reasons for having left their mother country. But everyone I spoke to hoped that one day they could return to Iran – but to an Iran where they were allowed to vote in truly democratic elections, speak freely, dress the way they wanted to, and choose their own religion and beliefs.As the whole idea, the plan is to travel to different countries who live Immigrants and refugees.