I returned to Iran, a country I no longer knew, to piece together fragments of my past and to look for traces of the life we left behind. I wanted to imagine another life for myself through women who had to stay behind. When I returned, I found a country that felt fatigued and defeated; a land caught between old tradition, ideological desire, and economic pressure. After many years of trying to forget, my childhood memories still clung on to me.
My family left Iran 20 years ago after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the subsequent Iran-Iraq war that devastated the political and cultural terrain of the country. Growing up as a Muslim Iranian in Canada was often times linked to shame and embarrassment.
“You Can’t Go Home Again” is my journey to reconcile the past.
The people in my photographs had envisioned a better future for themselves but their dreams faded over time. Many people ran away while others stayed and quietly accepted their fate. While this was meant to be a homecoming story I have sadly realized Iran will never be truly mine.
These images are a way to hold on to a fragile sense of normalcy. These photographs speak to the tension between collective trauma and a lingering hope for change. The journey back to Iran was a way to make sense of the loss, to heal and to come to terms with the consequences of our past.