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In December 1980, Iraq attacked Iran and surrounded Khorramshahr, a city in southwest Iran near the Iraqi border, not far from Kuwait and the Persian Gulf. It's the city I was born in before the Islamic Revolution in 1978. In May 1982, the city was released back to the Iranian Army after 34 days of popular resistance. All that I can now remember of Khorramshahr, a showpiece of Persian Gulf cities in those times,  is by way of family photos which remain.

 

My maternal family from those days was among the native Arabs forced to leave the city during the war to live in other cities. After the war, they returned to their city to reclaim their homes.  On my first journey back to visit Khorramshahr after twenty-five years of war, I saw the city’s people in self-portraits. 

The city had become a symbol of popular resistance in Iran. Still, it reveals many signs of the war and the people continue to live among ruins. 

 

                                                                   — Faranak Rezaee