Hengameh Golestan’s best photograph : Iranian women rebel against the 1979 hijab law : “I offered my photos to newspapers and no one wanted them”
▻http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/sep/03/hengameh-golestans-best-photograph-iranian-women-rebel-against-the-1979
This was taken on 8 March 1979, the day after the hijab law was brought in, decreeing that women in Iran would have to wear scarves to leave the house. Many people in Tehran went on strike and took to the streets. It was a huge demonstration with women – and men – from all professions there, students, doctors, lawyers. We were fighting for freedom: political and religious, but also individual.
This was taken at the beginning of the demonstration. I was walking beside this group of women, who were talking and joking. Everyone was happy for me to take their picture. You can see in their faces they felt joyful and powerful. The Iranian revolution had taught us that if we wanted something, we should go out into the street and demand it. People were so happy – I remember a group of nurses stopping some men in a car and telling them: “We want equality, so put on some scarves, too!” Everyone laughed.
[…]
I offered my photos to newspapers and no one wanted them.
Photo du 8 mars 1979, dont aucun journal n’a voulu selon Hengameh Golestan. Noter que le 13 février 1979, à l’inverse, le Corriere della sera publiait le texte de Foucault sur la révolution iranienne, dans lequel il s’enthousiasmait pour « le dynamisme d’un mouvement islamique » :
▻http://michel-foucault-archives.org/?Un-reportage-d-idees-en-Iran-1978
Cet épisode (les manifestations – notamment des femmes – qui ne veulent pas que les religieux confisquent la révolution en Iran, ainsi que l’enthousiasme inverse de Foucault) est régulièrement évoqué par Georges Corm.