Yalda Moaiery is an Iranian photojournalist who has covered conflict, war and natural disasters for the past 20 years. She was awarded the IWMF Courage in Journalism Award in 2023.
Soon after the death of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old woman who died on Sept. 16, 2022, after being taken into police custody for violating Iran’s hijab laws, massive protests broke out across Iran. More than 500 people were killed in a brutal crackdown against the protesters, and thousands were arrested.
I was one of them.
I was arrested on Sept. 19, 2022. After a month alone in a cell, I spent the next two months with about 1,000 others who had been arrested, in Qarchack, a prison for women in Tehran. We were of different ages, and different economic and social classes, but we’d all felt compelled to join together to call out injustice. Many of my fellow detainees had been beaten during their arrest. Many were subjected to mental and emotional abuse. Some of them were sexually assaulted.
I found myself with about 160 other women in a cage that was designed for only 50 people. Many of us had to sleep on the floor, with only rough blankets for cover; there were not enough toilets; there was a lack of fresh air; many women had to shave their hair to combat the lice that were spreading among the prisoners; we did not have enough food to eat. They tried to break us.
I was released on bail in December. Then, in February of 2023, the remaining prisoners were released and granted amnesty by the leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. But even now, many of the women who were in prison with me are still dealing with the psychological effects of their imprisonment, and have been unable to return to their former lives.
As a photographer, I wanted to capture what had occurred during the protests – who had been arrested, and what they had gone through. And so I asked some of these women to return to the site of their arrest.
This project pays tribute to all the people who protested, some of whom no one has heard from. They are my fighting sisters.
Setareh Azizian, 34
Police arrested Setareh on this Tehran street in November, 2022, then jailed her in a local detention centre for three days. She was sexually harassed while in custody, and now lives with mental and physical illnesses.
Parvaneh Ojaghi, 50, and Golzar Tarverdian, 19
When this mother and daughter were arrested at a protest in Pardis, a city east of Tehran, police beat them and then sent them to Qarchak prison. Lacking money for bail, they spent three months in custody. Parvaneh now works in a grocery store in Pardis. Golzar wants to open a cosmetic shop.
Sahar Anvari, 22
Sahar was arrested on Nov. 19, 2022, in Tehran’s Beheshte Zahra cemetery during the funeral for Hamidreza Rouhi, a casualty of the protests. After 36 days in Qarchak prison, she was given a five-year sentence, but was released under Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s amnesty.
Asal Razagh, 19
Police arrested Asal, at right with Sahar Anvari, for fighting with an officer outside her English-language school on Nov. 4, 2022. She was at Qarchak for two months, but eventually released owing to her young age.
Melika Gharegozloo, 23
Melika, a journalist and activist, had been arrested many times before police came to her home in October, 2022, and sent her to Qarchak for 48 days. After several suicide attempts, she was transferred to Amin Abad mental hospital and spent 33 days there. After three months, she was acquitted and released.
Helia Barkhi, 19
Helia was arrested for protesting without a hijab on Sept. 26, 2022, at her house in Varamin, southeast of Tehran. Released on bail after 84 days in custody, she is now unemployed.
Maliheh Bakhtiary, 36, and Shahrzad Koohestani, 29
Police arrested these women in Tehran’s Valiasr Street on Sept, 20, 2022. Maliheh was released after 10 days, but Shahrzad, unable to make bail, stayed behind and was sentenced to five years. She served five months before being granted amnesty.
Sahar Siasy, 31
Sahar and son Amir Abbas, 8, enjoy some drinks at the café near their former Tehran home, where she was arrested on Dec. 5, 2022. She was in Qarchak for a month before being released on bail. Since then, she’s left the capital and opened a café in northern Iran.
Melika Vatandoost, 23
Melika, a theatre actor in Tehran, was arrested on Dec. 5, 2022, in front of her friend Sahar. She was held at Qarchak for 31 days and then freed on bail.
Mahtab and Mahnaz Danesh Mayeh, 45 and 39
These sisters, shown at a garden near their Tehran home, were caught on city cameras without hijabs and arrested at home on Oct. 16, 2022. They were held in Evin Prison for 28 days and Qarchak for three months. Mahtab was sentenced to 10 years in prison, while Mahnaz was sentenced to 15 years, but were later granted amnesty. Now, both of them work at a Tehran beauty salon.
