13. A man shows a poster depicting Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as a devil during an Anti-Shah
demonstration, 1980, in front of the U.S. embassy in Tehran where the American hostages were
held.
13
17. Demonstrators carry a picture of Ayatollah Khomeini through the streets of the holy city of
Qom during the first Ashura after the Iranian Revolution in September 1979.
17
19. On the speaker’s stand on Imam Hossein Square in Tehran during a speech on the anniversary
of Ayatollah Khomeini’s exile, stands Ahmad Khomeini, his son. The three portraits show,
from left to right: Ali Akbar Rafsanjani, Khomeini and Hussein Ali Montazeri. 1982
19
27. Ayatollah Khalkhali walks near the remains of the U.S. marines killed near Tabas in the
attempt to free the American hostages held in Tehran, in April 1980.
27
28. Shortly after the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq war, mullahs, in arms, march past Ayatollah
Khomeini’s residence in Jamaran, in May 1980, thus affirming their support for the
revolution.
28
29. High school students in Tehran practice the manual of arms, trained by the Mujaheddin-e
Khalgh (Mujaheddin of the people), in March 1980.
29
31. A member of the Hezbollahi (center) stabs an Anti-Khomeini demonstrator in Tehran, 1980.
Thousands of people were killed in the streets all over Iran in 1979 and 1980. After having
taken this picture, I was arrested by Revolutionary Guards, beaten, threatened with
execution, and escaped only by chance.
31
33. Hojatoleslam Hadi Ghaffari, spiritual leader of the Hezbollahi, leads a demonstration in
Tehran, holding a gun and a hand grenade in his hands. 1980
33
35. Supporters of Ayatollah Shariat Madari tear up Khomeini’s portrait in Tabriz, 1980. Violent
incidents between partisans of the two Ayatollahs broke out in January 1980 in Tabriz, the
capital of Iranian Azerbaijan, Shariat Madari’s native region. They redoubled intensity
after the execution, on January 12th, of eleven members of the Republican Party of the Muslim
People, which invoked the name of Madari, who was under house arrest in Qom. As an ayatollah
that was politically moderate, he supported the revolutionary movement but soon diverged
from the evolving radical options. In 1982, he was stripped of his title of “Grand
Ayatollah” and “Model for Believers”. He died in 1986.
35
36. A Peshmarga fighter shows unexploded devices during the siege and bombing of the Kurdish
town of Sanandaj by Islamic revolutionary guards and army in which thousands of Kurds died,
1979.
36
38. A group of prisoners is executed publicly in Jamshid Street in Tehran, 1980, sentenced to
death by Ayatollah Khalkhali (“The Hangman of the Revolution”). The construction on which
they should be hung up collapsed, so the prisoners were shot dead.
38
40. Women prisoners in the notorious Evin prison in Tehran. On the third anniversary of the
advent of the Islamic Republic, in February 1982, journalists were shown oppositional
prisoners at Evin prison who were said to have “repented”. A thousand men and women were
thus exhibited at the time of prayer in the prison mosque. They were obliged to sing
religious or revolutionary songs. A political prison of sinister reputation, Evin became the
symbol of all prisons of the Khomeini regime. Thousands of people, oppositionists or
suspected oppositionists, were tortured or executed without the least form of due process.
During this demonstration to the press, in speeches, it was no longer a question of prison
but of “university” or “hospital” and of “re-education” destined to show the “right path” to
these “sick people”.
40
42. A soldier stands in front of a convoy of tanks driving along the horizon at the front near
Khoramshahr. Occupied since October 1980 by the Iraqis, Khoramshahr became the objective of
a major Iranian offensive, dubbed “Jerusalem”. On both sides, it became one of the bloodiest
battles of the war (50,000 dead in the first few days). Launched 29-30th April 1982, it ended
May 23rd by the reconquest of the city by Iran.
42
44. A group of mullahs, sent especially to the front in Shalamsheh, on the Iranian side of the
Iran-Iraq border near Abadan, by Ayatollah Khomeini, observes the oil port of Faw in Iraq
burning in 1983.
44
45. A young boy wearing a combat volunteer’s uniform holds a gun during a parade of female
basijis in Tehran, December 1983. The white band around his head is an invocation of
Ayatollah Khomeini. (World Press Photo 1st prize 1983, category news)
45
46. Boys sing a revolutionary song on the tribune during a celebration for the 1982 anniversary
of Ayatollah Khomeini's rebellion against the Shah. The posters show the late Ayatollah Dr.
Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini Beheshti (left), founder of the Islamic Republican Party who was
assassinated in 1981, and Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri.
46
48. Young basijis ("volunteers") march through Tehran in April 1984 before departing to the
front line of Iran-Iraq war. Many of them died in war. Behind them is a portrait of
Ayatollah Beheshti.
48
58. This situation during the battle of Khoramshahr has always reminded me of the battle of
Kerbela the way the story had always been told to us as children.
58
59. A mullah holds the drip bottle for one of the many soldiers injured in the battle of
Khoramshahr.
59
60. On a wall in Khoramshahr, a portrait of Ayatollah Khomeini almost disappears under the
impact of bullet and shrapnel. Khoramshahr was occupied for two years by Iraq before being
retaken by Iran in May 1982. Baptized the “bloody city”, it was completely destroyed.
60
64. Iraqi prisoners of war are forced to pray with a portrait of Khomeini in the military base
of Parandak, 50 km from Tehran, in spring 1982. After the battle of Desfuz, during the
victorious offensive aimed at recovering the city of Khoramshahr, about 15,000 Iraqi
prisoners from all the prison camps of the country were assembled and shown to the press.
Although they were members of the Sunni branch of Islam, they were subjected to “re-
education” in Shia Islam beliefs and practices.
64
74. A woman moans and weeps during the funeral of a war victim on the cemetery in Ahwaz,
Southwestern Iran, in April 1981. More than one million people died in the war.
74
82. Actors dressed as Iranian soldiers re-enact the battle of Majnun Island at the metro
construction site in Tehran, Iran, 1984. Several actors died during the performance.
82
86. Kurdish Peshmargas take me with them in their pick-up in Iranian Kurdistan, 1979. I had
marked my hand with what I believed to be my blood group: it was incorrect, and fortunately
I was not wounded.
86
87. I left Iran in 1985, just for a short while – or so I thought. But I remained exiled from my
home country until the present day.
87
95. A trainee marks the victory sign in Jante Hezbollah training camp in Bekaa valley, 1981.
95
96. Isa, an ex-marine from U.S. Special Forces who converted to Islam and came to Lebanon to
train Shia fighters, demonstrates the use of fire arms in a position around Beirut, 1981. He
later went to Iran where he was arrested for unclear reasons.
96
103. An elderly royalist woman protests in front of British riot police during clashes between
members of the Orange Order and security forces in Northern Ireland 1986. This photo was the
last frame I shot before I was wounded by a stone thrown by one of the demonstrators.
103
113. Night scene in the closed market of Managua, Nicaragua. Street children live in gangs in the
streets or in abandoned buildings. These photos were taken while shooting of a documentary
film, "Casita", about the subject in 2000.
113
125. U.S. troops take position after landing in Santiago, north of Panama City, to take a
Panamanian military base, December 21st, 1989. I was one of the first photojournalists to
arrive in Panama during the U.S. invasion, as all flights had been cancelled, but I crossed
the border by car from Costa Rica where I was living.
125
127. Supporters of President Daniel Ortega sit on a billboard depicting Ortega and reading: "We
win and everything will be better", in Managua, during the election campaign in February
1990.
127
133. Costa Rican school girls in their school uniforms lay down on the streets in San José to
protest against traffic accidents since many children had been killed in the streets by
accidents.
133
142. Afghan Mujaheddin fighters sit on top of a bunker at the beach near Kuwait City, in March
1991. Afghanistan’s Mujaheddin sent some 300 people as part of the multinational coalition
force.
142
148. U.S. President Bill Clinton holds a speech at Liberty Bridge in Kuwait on October 28th, 1994,
during a brief stopover to visit U.S. soldiers stationed in Kuwait.
148
150. A Kuwaiti boy waves a US flag in Kuwait City to celebrate the first anniversary of the
liberation of Kuwait from Iraqi occupation, on February 26th, 1992.
150
154. Traditional dancers and musicians perform at the celebration of extinguishing the last oil
well set ablaze by the Iraqi forces, in Al Ahmadi, nine months after the withdrawal of Iraqi
troops from Kuwait.
154
156. Two Shia Iraqis sit around in a refugee camp in northern Kuwait, 10 km south of the Iraqi
border, where several hundreds of people fleeing the civil war sought refuge, in March 1991.
156
168. Egyptian policemen rebuff me in Cairo, after an assassination attempt on the Egyptian Prime
Minister in 1993.
168
169. I was taken out of Mogadishu by a US military plane going to Cairo. When arriving at the
military airport in Cairo the passport control was very surprised to see the holder of an
Iranian passport traveling from Somalia with the US army. They decided that I must be very
important, saluted and sent a limousine to take me from the airport.
169
171. Bosnian children play war during the siege of Sarajevo in 1992 in which about 400,000
residents were trapped and cut off from all basic supplies. Thousands of civilians were
killed and wounded, suffered from rape and starvation.
171
172. The old library of Sarajevo, once containing a huge collection of old and precious books and
documents, was destroyed completely on August 26th, 1992, deliberately targeted by Serbian
militia. The entire day small burned paper fragments filled the air of Sarajevo.
172
173. A young boy relieves himself next to a US marine in full armor in Mogadishu, Somalia, during
the US operation in 1993.
173
174. Students of the Quranic University for women in Umm Durman, the sister city of Khartoum on
the other bank of the Nile in Sudan, follow a lecture, 1993. After graduation they work as
school teachers.
174
176. A student of Sayma Dayma Quranic School in Umm Durman is chained around his legs as
punishment. The traditional Quranic school is one of the oldest and most famous in Africa.
The approximately 200 students, all boys, begin as early as five years old. They sleep in
common rooms on the floor. Classes begin at 4.30 am after morning prayer and go on till late
afternoon.
176
177. Boys parade as soldiers of the Militia of Popular Defense (Army of Prophet Muhammad). Armed
forces demonstrate weapons and tactics during a parade in Khartoum, organized for
participants of the Islamic Conference in December 1993.
177
179. A girl pumps water in Jabal-Aula refugee camp, situated some 50 km from Khartoum, in
February 1993.
179
180. Sudanese citizens swear on the Quran to be loyal to President Omar al-Bashir, on his visit
to Al-Delenj in Southern Kurdofan state in December 1993.
180
182. Muammar Ghaddafi holds a press conference on November 3rd, 1994, in front of the ruins of his
palace in Tripoli, Libya, which was bombed and destroyed by American air force. His son was
killed by the bombing.
182
184. A military parade in Tripoli celebrates the 25th anniversary of Muammar Ghaddafi’s takeover
of power from King Idris in 1969.
184
185. One of the first people I met when moving to Jerusalem was one of my class mates from
Tehran. He had opened a sandwich bar next to my office in downtown Jerusalem. By the way,
Moshe Katzav and Mahmud Ahmedinejad also visited the same school in Iran.
While I was recovering from my Ramallah injury in the military hospital Hôtel des Invalides
in Paris the patients were visited by Jacques Chirac on Armistice Day. When talking to me he
asked me if I needed anything. Dizzy from all the medicine as I was I first said no but as
he was walking away I got an idea. “Monsieur le Président”, I called him back, telling him
that my Iranian citizenship causes problems in some countries. “What, you don’t have a
French passport yet?” he replied. And so, within a couple of weeks I had the French
citizenship “by honor”.
After having recovered from my gunshot injury from Ramallah, and after having spent 18
months in hospital from which 12 months in wheelchair, I took up traveling again. Four years
after that incident, I went with French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin to Palestine, and
finally also again to Ramallah where he was welcomed with a rain of stones by angry
students. He escaped in an armored car – which in the messy situation rolled over my
recently recovered leg. I was taken to the same hospital and treated by the same nurses and
doctors who first thought I was involved in shooting a documentary about the old incident.
185
187. An elderly Palestinian from Jerusalem kisses his only source of income, a camel on the Mount
of Olives where tourists usually come to have a look on the Old City of Jerusalem, and
eventually for a few dollars take a ride on the camel's back.
187
199. Thousands of Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men gather in Mea Shearim on May 28th, 1996 to support the
boycott of the May 29th Israeli general elections. They are members of an Ultra-Orthodox
movement that rejects the State of Israel.
199
201. Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men carefully examine the plants needed for Sukkoth feast before
purchasing. The inhabitants of Mea Shearim prepare for the one-week feast of Sukkoth in
October 1995, which commemorates the Jew's Biblical exodus from Egypt.
201
205. An Ultra-Orthodox Jewish family, the children in costumes, walk in Mea Shearim on the day of
Purim, March 3rd, 1996. Purim remembers the rescue of the Jews from Haman's plot to kill them
some 2000 years ago.
205
212. Young men and boys demonstrate against a Supreme Court decision not to close a main street
running through Bar Ilan neighborhood in Jerusalem during Shabbat and Jewish holidays on
August 17th, 1996.
212
213. The Greek Patriarch of Jerusalem, Diodoros I, blesses believers with Jordan water to
celebrate Epiphany. Jordan River here passes by the ruins of Allanby Bridge, destroyed
during the Six-day War.
213
214. Palestinian children watch a Palestinian strike in the West Bank to commemorate the 95th
month of the Intifada on November 9th, 1995.
214
216. Palestinian children cool off in a pedestrian pool by the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem
in July 1996. A heat wave has raised temperature to almost 40° C.
216
218. Israeli soldiers armed with M-16 rifles and sticks patrol the alleyways of Old Jerusalem on
August 30th, 1995. Palestinians could not follow an appeal by Yassir Arafat to pray in Al
Aqsa Mosque in protest over Israeli rightwing government policies because of Israeli
security restrictions.
218
220. A Palestinian woman is arrested by Israeli security forces for having entered Israel from
Gaza illegally. She went to Jerusalem to sell her vegetables. Israeli security forces are on
maximum alert prior to the Sharm el-Sheikh anti-terrorist summit on March 13th, 1996.
220
222. A Palestinian school girl stands in front of her school in Hebron where Jewish settlers have
dumped their garbage, including used diapers and other unpleasant things, in September 1995.
222
234. Yassir Arafat is carried on shoulders after he crossed the Rafah border point, entering the
newly self-ruled Gaza strip for the first time in 27 years on July 1st, 1994.
234
236. Young Palestinians, who have helped evacuating the wounded, throw a stone covered with a
Palestinian's blood to Israeli troops which are shooting at demonstrators in Ramallah
protesting against the opening of the tunnel under the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, September
26th, 1996. The same day, also I was shot by an Israeli sniper.
236
240. I was shot down by an Israeli soldier in Ramallah, West Bank, on September 26th 1996. I got
seriously wounded and spent the following 18 months recovering in the military hospital
Hôtel des Invalides in Paris. (Photo: Jim Hollander)
240
242. Young French UN Blue Helmet veterans from former Yugoslavia are dressed in gala uniforms for
celebrating Armistice Day, November 11th, 1996, in the military hospital Hôtel des Invalides
in Paris. I shot a series about French war veterans in the hospital while recovering from my
injuries from Ramallah.
242
246. A parachute veteran with his wife in the military hospital Hôtel des Invalides in Paris.
246
247. Despite being civilian and Muslim, I take part in the yearly military pilgrimage to Lourdes
in 1997, organized from the military hospital Hôtel des Invalides. (Self portrait)
247
259. Algerian presidential candidate Abdelaziz Bouteflika addresses supporters in Adrar, 1,400 km
south of Algiers, April 9th, 1999.
259
260. An Afghan man looks at cartoons through a slide viewer in Kabul, 2003.
260
261. Fardin, a street photographer and later one of the students at AINA photojournalism
institute in Kabul, took this portrait of me with a box camera in 2002.
261
278. A photo exhibition at AINA Afghan Culture and Media Center marks the first anniversary of
AINA Photojournalism Institute in 2003, presenting the students’ photos.
278
279. A villager from Badakhshan votes for the first time in his life at the Loya Jirga elections
in 2002. I spent two months as UN monitor in this area where 21,000 villagers were chosen,
village-by-village, to the time the pool was narrowed down to 1,500 elected delegates who
made their journey to Kabul. There they gathered for nine days, and after much debate,
ultimately in early June 2002 fostered the election of President Hamid Karzai and the
establishment of the Transitional Authority.
279
280. A woman in Faizabad, the capital of Badakhshan region, having thrown open her burqa, gives
her vote at the Loya Jirga elections.
280
288. A young man pushes his heavily loaded wheelbarrow through deep mud at a vegetable market in
Kabul, 2002.
288
289. The head of one of the two basalt statues which guarded the entrance of the ancient,
subterranean tomb of the kings of Qatna in Syria discovered in December 2002. The statues
date from ca. 18th century B.C.
289
291. It was in this royal tomb, 18 meter deep under the ground, that I met my wife Ursula, an
archaeologist, here documenting the exact position of jewellery spread around the
sarcophagus. The archaeologists wear helmets, masks and gloves against the dangers of
falling rock pieces and fungi.
291
293. The semi-nomadic inhabitants of this summer village called Belli Yayla near the famous site of
Nemrut Dag in Turkey spend their summer 2005 with the animals in a prehistoric way of life: no
electricity, no running water, and the architecture of the stone houses reflects ancient
predecessors.
293
297. Only the minaret peaks out from the submerged mosque of Savasan village which has been
flooded by the waters of Birecik reservoir damming up the Euphrates in Southeastern Turkey.
It is now, in 2004, inhabited only by two families. Many villages have been destroyed by dam
projects; its inhabitants forced to settle elsewhere or move into the suburbs of the big
cities.
297
299. Girls study the Quran in Sultan İsa Medrese in Mardin, Southeastern Turkey. 2004 was the
first year Quranic lessons here had been permitted again by the Turkish government.
299
301. Jebel Barkal pyramids in Northern Sudan at dusk, March 2005. The pyramids are part of the
royal cemetery of Napata, the capital of the Kushite kings in the 1st millennium BC.
301
303. A camel caravan travels from Darfur to Egypt for sale, near the 3rd Nile cataract in Sudan,
March 2005. The road is called Tariq al-Arba’in, meaning Road of the Forty, because it takes
approximately 40 days to travel.
303
305. Pyramid in Jebel Barkal. Unlike Egyptian pyramids which were built to hide the burial
chamber, the Napatan ones are epitaphs for the deceased, who are buried in a hypogeum
underneath.
305
307. A Nubian village with typically painted houses at the 4th Nile cataract in Sudan, March
2005. The villagers are displaced by the newly constructed Merowe Dam, and are resettled in
ready-built concrete settlements in the middle of desert.
307
308. Portrait of a Nubian girl in a village at the 4th Nile cataract.
308
310. Portrait of an old Nubian villager whose shadow forms the shape of a pharaoh. The Nubian
“Black Pharaohs” from what is today Northern Sudan ruled over Ancient Egypt as the 25th
Dynasty between 720 and 664 BC.
310
312. Night commuters gather in a night shelter in a hospital in Northern Uganda in August 2006.
The boys seek refuge from the Lord’s Resistance Army, abducting children from the villages
to join their militia group as child soldiers.
312
314. A refugee woman in Northern Uganda builds her new house, August 2006. After 20 years of
civil war causing ten thousands of dead, mutilated and refugees, an agreement of the Ugandan
government with the Lord’s Resistance Army gives hope for peace and stability.
314
324. A drugged street boy lies on the market in Managua, Nicaragua, 2000.
324
325. Portrait of a man in a village in Dasht-e Kavir Desert, Iran, 1981.
325
326. An Afghan man takes part in a WFP (World Food Program) Food for Work project in Hazrate
Sultan in Badakhshan, cleaning an irrigation channel from mud, 2003.
326
327. An Egyptian pilgrim arrives with a TV set from Saudi Arabia to Suez port along with
thousands of other Egyptians who return home after performing the pilgrimage to Mecca in
1992.
327
328. A Palestinian man carries a refrigerator up the long steps in the Old City of Jerusalem,
October 1995. And a Palestinian worker carries a toilet passing Erez crossing point to Gaza
Strip from Israel, February 8th, 1996.
328
334. Adriano Sofri, leader of the Italian extreme-left extra-parliamentarian movement Lotta
Continua (“continuous struggle”), visits Iran together with his wife in 1980.
334
336. Portrait of Adriano Sofri in prison in Pisa, Italy. Adriano Sofri has been sentenced to 22
years of prison in January 1997, for the murder of Luigi Calabresi, a police officer in May
1972. The trial has widely been regarded as a farce; the only evidence against Sofri was a
single confession of a man regarded unreliable by many. After serious illness he has been
released in 2006.
336
340. Iraqi refugees queue for food and water in this camp near Safwan, run by the US military, in
April 1991. More than 6000 refugees are sheltered in the Kuwaiti desert near the Iraqi
border.
340
