The International Fajr Film Festival has been a prominent part of the celebration of the Islamic Revolution since 26 years ago. Since then, every year, the cold February days see a lot of new movies competing against each other. The event also includes discussions about the participating films and a lot of other social events.
As you might guess, among the criteria for picking Iranian actresses, like all over the world, the looks play a major part. That, however, would make the life of some photographers very hard. When Fars News wanted to publish pictures from a meeting in the festival, they had no othere choice than to focus on the name-tags and blur out the ladies. See more pictures in the photoblog.
Update: Farnaz Seifi comments on the pictures on France 24.
Update: A Voice of Two Cities comments.
nice new look!
Kamangir: Thanks Ali, you are the first to recognize. :)
Comment by Ali — February 11, 2008 @ 11:59 am
Congratulations Arahs for your new web site presentation.
Kamangir: Thanks Carlos.
Comment by Carlos — February 11, 2008 @ 2:59 pm
Hey Arash,
They really are pretty! My goodness…I think this just going one inch farther into the crazy that is the Iran of today…blurring out women…hanging women…basically, it’s ridiculous but it still works to stop someone from feeling attracted to a girl.
Really…unless you were desperate(which could be the case) a blur of skin tones and hair is not that hot IMO
Comment by Beja — February 11, 2008 @ 8:44 pm
Nice new looking. It looks much more professional. Congrats.
Kamangir: Thanks. :)
Comment by Mahmoud — February 11, 2008 @ 10:29 pm
You are a fraud. The blurred pictures are so because the photographer was focusing on the name tags, to get the name of the participants. They had no choice eh?
http://www.farsnews.com/plarg.php?nn=M294994.jpg
http://www.farsnews.com/plarg.php?nn=M295000.jpg
http://www.farsnews.com/plarg.php?nn=M295001.jpg
http://www.farsnews.com/plarg.php?nn=M295013.jpg
http://www.farsnews.com/plarg.php?nn=M295018.jpg
http://www.farsnews.com/plarg.php?nn=M295025.jpg
Seems to me they did have a choice. It is very disingenuous of you to take a bunch of photos which are meant to focus on the name tag and make up a bunch of lies about it.
Furthermore, these ladies are movie actresses. Their faces are all over the theaters in Iran. Why would a news organization want to blur them out as you claim. Everyone knows who they are and what the look like because they have seen many movies with them in it.
You are a propagandist and not a very good one.
Kamangir:
And he only needed to do that with the ladies?
The links you have provided were also sent on France24 in a comment. I provided a clarification there, which I also post here,
Comment by GIJoe — February 15, 2008 @ 12:05 am
Yes, I know, this is another atrocity of Iranian regime against human rights!! What a terrible situation back there in Iran! I think it’s much worse than Gaza, isn’t it!
Comment by Hazim — February 15, 2008 @ 6:56 am
I just posted about this…But I’ll say it here too and because I respect you and want you to know what I think.
I don’t think they were blurred to cover their faces. I can presume it is such but my second thought after going through the links and all the other comments and some other blogs it’s not the case IMHO.
I’m guessing the photographer was trying to get artsy on everyone and thought it would be interesting to do that…But really, it could be he was trying to ignore the women but I can’t say that is anymore true but only a weak presumption on my part bc they have lots of pictures of their faces on the same site.
But I appreciate your blog and your articles and respect.
Comment by Beja — February 15, 2008 @ 3:35 pm
Seems like the camera worked just fine for the mens’ photos, the camera might be an extremist who just can’t stand looking at women without feeling the devil breathe down his neck.
Did it ever occur to anyone that instead of covering up and locking up women, the men should work on improving their character and their self control? !
Comment by nachtwache — February 16, 2008 @ 2:31 am
I know this is slightly off topic, but I just went through some of your photos. They’re fantastic. Lot’s of close ups of different textures. To my untrained eye, you’re very good.
Kamangir: Thanks. :)
Comment by brando — February 16, 2008 @ 10:13 am