The Rooms: Paradise of Zahra consists of a documentary photo series, called “Behesht -e- Zahra” (Paradise of Zahra) Cemetery” and an installation with soil. The photo series is from the largest cemetery Iran, which is called “Behesht –e- Zahra” with more than 1.5 million graves.

​

The images are installed as a long wall consisting of rooms as family mausoleums, surrounds this cemetery. Families had bought these mausoleums during monarchy period. Each of these mausoleums has its own story and is decorated and furnished by members of family. They have the same architectural features and surface measure. However, nowadays some of them are used for different purposes such as inventory or even as a place to live for poor refugees, though there are still graves in there. This is because some of the graves to the deceased have been abandoned after the Islamic revolution. Some others are furnished luxuriously by Persian carpets and chandeliers.

​

This exhibition tends to find the answer to the question regarding the Death-Birth dualism, to explore if death is a disruption for life or is it the other way around, and how can death be pregnant with life, just as the soil with the seeds? Nowadays, after three months that people in Iran are fighting for their rights, it seems that the streets are calmer and quieter at least in the big cities, but what keeps the fire of the protests alive, is the mourning and memorial ceremonies of the free souls who lost their lives in this path, held at cemeteries and they become a new strong demonstration motivation against government for resuming the fight. Now, people still keep trying to disrupt the government by chanting slogans at cemeteries. And this Birth of hope for the change of government, still reflects in the Death that the government has imposed on people. This event is dedicated to the free souls who lost their lives, protesting the Islamic Regime in Iran.