6 days ago
Iranian photographer Forough Alaei portrays life during the war: 'Nothing will ever be the same again'
Rarely have photos of daily life in Iran reached us during the 12 days of fighting between Israel and Iran. After authorities in Tehran cut access to the global internet on June 18, only Iranians with VPNs could, with difficulty, contact their loved ones. In this context, the work of Iranian photographer Forough Alaei, 36, documenting her family's flight from the Iranian capital to the shores of the Caspian Sea stands out as unique. Far from the usual images of a population under the grip of the Islamist regime, she offered an intimate and unvarnished portrait, depicting scenes of family life during a pivotal moment in her country's history.
On Sunday, June 15, two days after the start of Israeli airstrikes, Forough Alaei left the capital with her family to take shelter at her uncle's home in Abbas Abad, on the Caspian Sea coast. "My sister called, panicking, to warn us that our neighborhood had been hit," the photographer recounted. "The neighbors' windows had shattered. Tiara, my 8-year-old niece, was terrified and couldn't calm down. I told her to pack their things, that we would come pick them up by car to leave Tehran ( … ) I had never seen such traffic jams… Usually, it takes less than four hours to reach the sea; that day, it took us sixteen hours to get there." Forough Alaei and her family remained on the coast for the entire war, moving between her uncle's house in Abbas Abad and her aunt's in Sari, before returning to Tehran. On June 27, three days after the ceasefire, the photographer wrote: "These days, we are torn between two conflicting feelings. On one hand, the desire to return to a normal life and, on the other, anxiety about the future. The only thing we can say for certain is that nothing will ever be the same again."
