Lifting the Veil

ENLARGE PHOTO+

Picture of fun: Hassanzadeh's paintings lampoon the cult of martyrdom

© Khosrow Hassanzadeh

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Policewomen, clad in black chadors, with guns slung over their shoulders: the cover of Transit Tehran — an anthology of writing, art and photography — bears exactly the sort of bristly image you would expect to see of the Iranian capital.

Inside, however, lies the unexpected: page after page of fascinating elucidation of a nation and people that desperately require understanding. Iran is a young country. Some 75% of Iranians are under 35, and it is this demographic that is responsible for the wit and poignancy that make Transit Tehran so absorbing. It has come at a cost: some contributors were jailed during the volume's preparation, hounded by a state that brooks no threat to its cultural authority.

Living with artistic and social restraint is thus the thematic connection between much of the work. Javad Montazeri contributes a touching photo essay of women swimming, fully clad, and sadly ponders the fact that when his daughter is 9 she too will be forced to swim in the same restrictive garments. Rapper Mehrak Golestani, a.k.a. Reveal, writes about secret house parties where DJs silence the decks at 5 a.m. so that the first call to prayer can be heard. Khosrow Hassanzadeh satirizes official portraits of "martyrs" in the war with Iraq by painting his friends in the same style.

For too long, perceptions of Iran have been dominated by its nuclear saber-rattling and Islamist bluster. Transit Tehran shows us that young Iranians are willing to stick their necks out in the hope that we will look beyond those stereotypes.