Hengameh Golestan, a pioneer of women photographers in Iran, was one of a handful of documentary photographers who took to
the streets of Tehran to capture the protests during the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Particularly focused on the vital role that women
played politically, she captured these images of the International Women’s Day protests on March 8, 1979. Sparked by Ayatollah
Khomeini’s decree, made the day prior, for the mandatory veiling of all women, tens of thousands of women—many of whom had
supported the revolution—gathered in the snowy capital to protest this violation of their rights. After six days of protest, the hopeful
determination of the demonstrators, most of them young students, ultimately resulted in a brief retraction of the veiling mandate.
Golestan’s photographs have renewed relevance today, as young Iranians take to the streets to oppose government restrictions of
their civil liberties.
Golestan began taking photographs as a teenager, honing her skills while on the job with her husband, photojournalist
Kaveh Golestan, whom she married in 1975. As a woman in post-revolutionary Iran, her opportunities as a photojournalist were
limited, and she was prevented from going to the front lines to cover the Iran–Iraq War (1980–88); instead, she turned to documenting
village life in Kurdistan. Golestan moved to London in 1984, where she still resides.
