The Weakness of Dictatorships
Written by 🇺🇦 journalist Bogdan Logvynenko. “The weakness of dictatorships is so unoriginal — whether in Tehran, Pyongyang, or Moscow. They dig bunkers for themselves and boast about their missiles, but they are mortally afraid of the simplest things. They fear the slightest manifestation of freedom. They fear a song that can be sung on the street. They fear a woman who looks straight into the camera, and even more so — one who lights a cigarette from a portrait of the dictator. This photo is the work of the Iranian photographer Newsha Tavakolian, “Untitled”, 2021. Tavakolian did not leave Iran; she stayed to document the decline of yet another dictatorship. The series to which this work belongs was dedicated to women who, with the regime’s tightening screws, were left with fewer and fewer personal freedoms. Her heroines often have their eyes covered or stand with their backs turned, because being visible is already a crime. Once, in the north of Norway, beyond the Arctic Circle...