Throughout the month of July, Leon is honored to be collaborating with Middle East Images Foundation, to present to our Denver community, an exhibition of images from the civil rights protests that took place in Iran last fall.
To learn more about the details of these protests, please view this insightful Frontline episode from January of this year.
Mahsa-Jina Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman, was beaten to death in the custody of the so-called “morality police,” for the crime of having what they considered an improper hijab, on September 16, 2022, in Tehran. Her murder sparked a revolutionary uprising that is now known the world over as the Woman Life Freedom movement. Led by women and Gen Z, the intersectional movement has brought together Iranians from across various gender, age, socioeconomic, labor, and ethnic groups, both inside the country and in diaspora to fight against the Islamic Revolution and its brutal patriarchal and ideological totalitarianism.
According to official reports by human rights organizations, more than five-hundred people have been brutally killed in the past few months, and thousands (according to some sources, as many as fourteen thousand at one point) arrested, many of whom still remain in detention. Several men have been executed for the sole crime of participating in protests.
An unprecedented fight that has lasted for more than ten months in various shapes and forms, the Woman Life Freedom uprising has already victoriously shifted the foundations of the Iranian society, even if it has not (yet) led to the toppling down of the Islamic Republic regime.
The photographs showcased in the “Woman, Life, Freedom” exhibition at Leon Gallery, brought to you in collaboration with the Middle East Images Foundation, document the bravery of the protestors through the lens of seven young photographers based in Iran, who for security reasons need to remain anonymous. Risking their lives and freedoms to be present at these historical moments, these young women and men bring to us unique images of a people standing up for their right to their bodies and minds with all their might.
People gather during a protest for Mahsa Amini, who died after being arrested by morality police allegedly not complying with strict dress code in Tehran,Iran.People gather during a protest for Mahsa Amini, who died after being arrested by morality police allegedly not complying with strict dress code in Tehran, Iran on September 22, 2022.
Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being arrested by the Islamic republic’s “morality police”, in Tehran on September 19, 2022. – Fresh protests broke out on September 19 in Iran over the death of a young woman who had been arrested by the “morality police” that enforces a strict dress code, local media reported. Public anger has grown since authorities on Friday announced the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, in a hospital after three days in a coma, following her arrest by Tehran’s morality police during a visit to the capital on September 13.People gather during a protest for Mahsa Amini, who died after being arrested by morality police allegedly not complying with strict dress code in Tehran, Iran on September 22, 2022.
Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being arrested by the Islamic republic’s “morality police”, in Tehran on September 19, 2022. – Fresh protests broke out on September 19 in Iran over the death of a young woman who had been arrested by the “morality police” that enforces a strict dress code, local media reported. Public anger has grown since authorities on Friday announced the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, in a hospital after three days in a coma, following her arrest by Tehran’s morality police during a visit to the capital on September 13.
People gather during a protest for Mahsa Amini, who died after being arrested by morality police allegedly not complying with strict dress code in Tehran, Iran on September 21, 2022.
Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being arrested by the Islamic republic’s “morality police”, in Tehran on September 19, 2022. – Fresh protests broke out on September 19 in Iran over the death of a young woman who had been arrested by the “morality police” that enforces a strict dress code, local media reported. Public anger has grown since authorities on Friday announced the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, in a hospital after three days in a coma, following her arrest by Tehran’s morality police during a visit to the capital on September 13.People gather during a protest for Mahsa Amini, who died after being arrested by morality police allegedly not complying with strict dress code in Tehran,Iran.People protesting and showing victory sign, standing behind a brick barricade, with flames of burning fire next to it, on the streets of Mahabad city in the West Azerbaijan province, Iran. As a result of a severe crackdown between protesters and the Islamic Republic’s armed forces.
The nationwide protests started after the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old girl who died under the custody of the Islamic Republic’s Morality Police on September 16th, 2022 in Tehran, Iran.People gather during a protest for Mahsa Amini, who died after being arrested by morality police allegedly not complying with strict dress code in Tehran, Iran on October 1st 2022.
Thousands of Iranians have taken to the streets over the last two weeks to protest the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who had been detained by the morality police in the capital of Tehran for allegedly wearing her mandatory Islamic veil too loosely.People gather during a protest for Mahsa Amini, who died after being arrested by morality police allegedly not complying with strict dress code in Tehran, Iran on October 1st 2022.
Thousands of Iranians have taken to the streets over the last two weeks to protest the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who had been detained by the morality police in the capital of Tehran for allegedly wearing her mandatory Islamic veil too loosely.A woman holding the ?Woman, Life, Freedom? sign, with the fallen street sign ?Jomhouri Eslami? (Islamic Republic) street in the background with tear gas in the air.October 1st 2022. Tehran, Iran.
