Fatemeh Behboudi (*1985) was born in Iran and her childhood and youth were spent in the name of war. The Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) was one of the bloodiest conflicts of the 20th century. Casualty figures are highly uncertain, though the numbers of dead on both sides ran into the hundreds of thousands. In Iran, people who were killed in the conflict were declared martyrs for their country, and therefore for Islam. Over ten thousands of Iranian soldiers were reported missing in action in Iraq, without a corpse being identified. Bodies are still being discovered and repatriated. Many mothers of missing soldiers live in hope of seeing their sons again, or finally having a body that they may bury. Fatemeh is master in capturing the emotions of women-mothers and in her creation often uses dark areas to express heavy sadness and different kinds of psychological conditions of cruel patience.
After work, I watched the photos during day and thought about the subjects which had influenced me and cried for a long time.
Photographs are authorized © Fatemeh Behboudi.
Interview with Fatemeh Behboudi
Editor in chief, administrator and founder of dofoto magazine.
