Framing the war in the post war era: Exploring the counter-narratives in frames of an Iranian war photographer thirty years after the ceasefire with Iraq

Abstract

The battle between Iran and Iraq ended with a ceasefire being signed in 1988 but the war continued for most Iranians and their leadership. Even today after three decades, the war continues for Iranians who live in the borderlands as they struggle with the landmines and left-overs of the battles. Mehdi Monem, a celebrated Iranian war photographer, frames the pain of Iranians in the borderlands as the counter-narrative that challenges the mainstream frames of propaganda. He challenges the master narrative of the Islamic Republic of Iran that generates meanings for the frames of the war through notions of martyrdom and sacrifice. Hence, I follow his work in the context of the visual culture of martyrdom via an ethnography that explains how Iranians receive the pain of others 30 years after the war at home and abroad.