Abstract
Painters in Tehran, 2003
Magnum photographer
Iranians live with censorship the way ancient Egyptians lived with the ten plagues: attacks come one after another, in great variety; they bring havoc and everyone does his best to avoid them.
Censorship corrupts all walks of life in Iran: politics and journalism, the internet and the cinema, visual arts and literature, dress code and women’s voices – even children’s stories. Journalists working for the western media are routinely asked by the secret police about their sources and requested not to write or broadcast unfavourable stories about Iran.
Sometimes censorship is the first step towards prison: when the Green Movement was mercilessly suppressed in 2009, journalist and documentary film director Maziar Bahari was arrested and underwent physical and psychological torture. He was freed after four months, thanks to an international campaign (read Maziar Bahari’s manifesto on pp.80–81).
Officially it is not compulsory for a film, a novel, a play or a visual art exhibition to pass through the censor before creation or publication. The system is more hypocritical: censorship takes place afterwards. Thus a film or a novel can be banned or an exhibition taken off the walls after considerable sums of money have been invested.
For probing the boundaries of censorship, film director Jafar Panahi was handed down a six-year jail sentence – suspended so far – and a 20-year ban on making or directing any movies, writing screenplays and giving any form of interview to Iranian or foreign media, as well being prohibited from leaving the country. For having appeared in a western film, Ridley Scott’s Body of Lies, actress Golshifteh Farahani has to live in exile in Paris.
There are two kinds of censorship in Iran: official, as in the cases above, and a more pernicious kind, where the same level of control and the same result can be achieved by making everyone a censor, by planting the idea of censorship in every Iranian’s mind. This way, there is no need to employ large numbers of official censors. This brand of censorship has developed into an art form.
Iranians have also developed their response into an art form. Instead of confronting the censor, they bypass him.
Women are not allowed to sing and dance in public? Cultural evenings are organised in private homes where women play instruments, sing and dance!
The female nude is not to be displayed in galleries? Exhibitions are held in artists’ studios!
A woman’s hair is not to be shown outside her home? A photographer uses models who have no hair whatsoever as a result of a genetic condition!
An army of censors, most of them wounded veterans from the war with Iraq, dutifully apply dark ink to foreign magazines imported into Iran in order to cover up all exposed parts of the female body? A photographer creates works of art using the same technique!
Azadeh Akhlagui photographs models wearing chadors. Both models are hairless due to a genetic condition
Photographer Shadi Ghadirian at work on a series about censorship, 2005
Documentary film director Maziar Bahari (right) and director of photography Mohammad Ahmadi scout a location for a film on Aids, 2003
A woman poses for a portrait, Djamshidie Park, Tehran, 2000
Actress Golshifte Farahani (right) and Maryam Mehrjui on location for an art video featuring Mehrjui and directed by her mother, Faryar Javaherian, November 2006
Jafaar Panahi (third from right, standing) directs Offside, a film about a girl who must dress like a boy to attend football matches, Tehran, June 2005
A woman’s curves are not to be displayed? Fashion designers envelope the female body in beautiful loose patterns.
Censorship is self-defeating: without the restrictions imposed by the censor, would Iranian cinema have enjoyed the international success it does? Would Iranian art, including photography, be so alive? In a country under the tyranny of censorship, art becomes a struggle.
A great writer told me the best story about censorship. Mullahs, many of whom have graduated from Qom seminaries, are responsible for censoring books. But reading books all day broadens the horizons of the censor. So the mullahs become more lax in their censorship as time passes and have to be replaced every six months.
There is a price to pay though: Iran is a country of schizophrenic citizens, torn between censorship imposed in public life and the freedom they enjoy in the secrecy of their minds and homes. ❒
Captions
All photos © Abbas/Magnum
Page 72: Painters in Tehran, 2003
Pages 74–75: Azadeh Akhlagui photographs models wearing chadors. Both models are hairless due to a genetic condition
Page 76: Photographer Shadi Ghadirian at work on a series about censorship, 2005.
Documentary film director Maziar Bahari (right) and director of photography Mohammad Ahmadi scout a location for a film on Aids, 2003
Page 77: A woman poses for a portrait, Djamshidie Park, Tehran, 2000
Page 78: Actress Golshifte Farahani (right) and Maryam Mehrjui on location for an art video featuring Mehrjui and directed by her mother, Faryar Javaherian, November 2006
Jafaar Panahi (third from right, standing) directs Offside, a film about a girl who must dress like a boy to attend football matches, Tehran, June 2005