Iranian citizen and photographers イランの市民と写真家たち

Mahsa Amini, known as “Jina” by her Kurdish name, was a 22-year-old Iranian woman in September 2022. She dreamt of becoming a radio host and had just opened a clothing store in her hometown, Saqqez, in Kurdistan, western Iran. On September 13 of the same year, she was in Tehran, the Iranian capital, visiting with her family when she was arrested by the police for an appearance deemed “not Islamic enough.” On September 16, she died as a result of mistreatment she faced during her detention. Her death sparked the most powerful wave of protest in the history of the Islamic Republic of Iran, established in 1979. On the day of her funeral, a simple block of concrete was placed on her grave with the phrase painted by her uncle: “Dear Jina, you donʼt die, your name becomes a symbol.” From then on, these words and their prophetic strength nourished Iranian society. The protest, initially led by young people who had not experienced either the revolution or the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988), now affects other age groups and almost all classes of society, women and men alike. Its goal is to “reclaim life,” away from the dictates of the authorities. It is written, read, and shouted in the slogan: “Woman, life, freedom!” The photos and videos of the protests published by citizens reached us through social networks. Indeed, Iranian authorities did not want to spread images of the movement through official information channels. Thanks to the newspaper Le Monde and two Iranian colleagues, Payam Elhami and Farzad Seifikaran, we authenticated the images published online. We know the date and location of their capture. For this exhibition, we also collected the work of Iranian photographers, still in Iran, sometimes anonymous. “You Donʼt Die” is an ode to the courage of Iranians and a manifesto that immortalizes an important episode in Iranian history, one that the authorities attempt to erase.