Biography:
Born in Tehran, Iran, I began photography at age seventeen at the Tehran Visual Arts School while studying Graphics. With my academic education in photography art history, Photojournalism, I have recently completed a PhD research on the history...
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It was in November 2015 that a Kashmiri friend of mine, Namia, rushed to me with the news: "Have you heard about the Paris attack?" I replied, yes, my dear, I am sorry to hear that a safe place like Paris is the victim of horror and terror. But earlier, two attacks in Beirut and Kabul happened; you didn't mention that! I told her we responded to the Paris attack as it is uncommon. We get used to it once we hear more, and the news no longer attracts us. I told her this type of sympathy is selective and not based on pure humanity and compassion. There, I told her one day I would work on a project and would name it "Selective Sympathy".Later on, I came to know about Kashmiri Pandits. Due to Islamic extremism, they had to leave their homeland nine times in their history, the latest at the beginning of 1990, and many either were mascaraed or converted. After reading about them, I felt their pain. I saw the story of my country, Iran, and the story of the Persians in their accounts. Life through massacre and forced conversions, where the Zoroastrian Iran gradually converted to Islam over centuries. So, I decided to narrate the feelings of suppression and displacement through the lens of the historical experience of my nation.There is more to this familiarity. Indeed, Islam came to Kashmir through an Iranian Sufi called Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani from Hamadan, Iran, several centuries ago. Persian culture heavily influenced the region, and many Iranians during centuries moved to Kashmir. The valley became famous as Iran e Sagheer or the Little Iran. But our relationship with Kashmir is not limited to the post-Islamic era. Pre-Islamic Iran was a Zoroastrian country which retained the essence of this religion in its art, architecture, language, literature and many other areas after the arrival of Islam. Zoroastrianism is an Aryan religion with mutual roots with Hinduism, and its Avestan language is considered the sister language of Sanskrit. The project's significance lies in its timelines as a universal crisis and the hopelessness of the idea of return.