Almost 70 per cent of Iran’s population of 74 million are children of the Islamic Revolution and are therefore under the age of 25. They are growing up in the world’s only theocracy, a society that could be described as anti-globalist avant la lettre due to its distinctive form of government and international politics.
However, the Islamic Republic found itself in an economic wasteland, devoid of democracy or freedom. Today, only a corrupt elite entrenched around the religious class benefits from the country's inexhaustible oil and gas reserves. The country’s administration is paralysed by opaque power structures and countless mafia groups. Human rights have never been respected by the judiciary. Millions of young Iranians are forced to bear the heavy legacy of their parents, who overthrew the US-backed Shah and helped bring the mullahs to power.
Every year, 180,000 young people leave Iran, but most Iranians remain in their ancient homeland, frustrated and with no prospect of finding a job. Many of them are easy targets for drug dealers who use Iran as a transit route for Afghan opium. Furthermore, the country is located between two major international flashpoints: Iraq and Afghanistan. Washington has never put the mullahs under greater pressure.
These images were produced with the support of the Pascal Decroos Fund. They depict pro-Western city-dwellers, young pilgrims, ambitious students, conscripts, and other impoverished twenty-somethings. The settings are the desolate coast of the Caspian Sea, a place of pilgrimage in Qom, a park and the mountains north of Tehran.
Images: © David Nollet
