IRAN: Dreams of each other in Tehran

Recently Tehran's House of Iranian Artists held an exhibition by a young Afghan photojournalist named Fardin Waezi. The lovely old mansion in downtown Tehran has become the site of a political tug-of-war between hard-liners, not so hard-liners and so-called modernizers in the city government. They all want control over the building.

Occasionally, however, some decent paintings and photographs are shown there, so it's still worth a visit.

Organizers were still putting up Waezi's extraordinary pictures from his war-torn land, along with descriptions in Farsi and English.

Many of the people at the exhibit were young Afghan actors playing roles as laborers on Iranian soap operas. They complained about the discrimination they suffered, such as being barred from studying at Iranian high schools or getting a jobs even after graduating from Iranian universities or being derided on the streets as "Afghanis," even though some had been born and raised in Iran.

Still, they were proud that Waezi's photos were being shown at so prestigious a venue. The exhibit included poems written by the photographer.

Springs smile!
The spring along with its lovable smile
Season of flowers
Blossoms and beauty for you, and me,
The spring is waiting to you to come and plant a sapling
For our future and the future of lovely Afghanistan.

His photographs of Kabul harkened back to scenes from Tehran 40 or 50 years ago. "Perhaps today's Ankara or Dubai are our fast-forward?" said one Iranian woman visiting the exhibit.

As a character in Iranian filmmaker Bahram Baizai's 1992 "The Travelers," says, "We are all dreams of each other."

— Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran

Photo: A picture of joy from Afghanistan by photojournalist Fardin Waezi, who was featured at a recent exhibit in Tehran. Credit: Fardin Waezi