The age of 40 years old…
It is not the beginning or end of anything, it is just a period of time during life to pause for a moment and review the past and imagine the future.
40 years old is not the symbol of political or social maturity in a newly founded ideology raised from Middle East, it is mostly the commencement of an apparent transformation in which the charismatic characters of the past are gradually being replaced with others, the others which are tangible for us and we can discoverourselves through them.
To me, 40 years old is the wane of youth and emotional feelings, a beginning to see and think differently!
The coincidence of my 40-year-old birthday and Islamic Revolution in Iran made me motivated to have a look at the common past between me and this government.
This photo collection is the same pause on the path which has been already passed, with a mandatory part and an apparently optional part.
The 40 years which have been affected by different individuals who had various ideologies or social or artistic experiences. The Revolution, people and I have been all affected by these individuals, whether we like their strategies, ideas, policies and etc. or not.
The hidden aspect of such effect and the unknown influential individuals might become apparent by the passage of time.
In my 40-year-old birthday, I was not awaiting to receive any phone calls or messages from anyone. In that day, I was just attempting to discover myself. I should have formed my thoughts and previous experiences, like giving a birth to a baby. So, I switched off my cell phone and exactly in that day, I created my 40-yeard-old child. This is the 40-year-old frame of me and this Islamic Revolution; an experience in which each character has a different colour and shape. However, they are not far from each other.
Sayyid Ruhollah Mūsavi Khomeini Mahmoud Taleghani •Brigadier Captain Ayat Mohagheghi •Seyyed Abolhassan Banisadr The People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran •Mohammed Sadeq Givi Khalkhali Jimmy Earl Carter •Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani •Saddam Hussein •Hussein-Ali Montazeri •Susan Taslimi •Capitan Mohsen Rezaeian •Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei •Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou •Abbas Attar •Hassan Nasrallah •Fereydoun Farrokhzad •Abdorrahman Boroumand •Ali Fallahian Abbas Amir-Entezam •Seyyed Mohammad Khatami •Mohsen Rezaei •Dariush Forouhar •Ahmad Batebi •Zahra Kazemi •Saeed Mortazavi •Mahmoud Ahmadinejad •Saeed Hajjarian •Mir Hossein Mousavi Khameneh •Mohammad-Reza Shajarian •Mahmoud Reza Khavari •Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam •Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin •Nasrin Sotoudeh •Mohammad Javad Zarif •Abbas Kiarostami •Vida Movahed •Kavous Seyed-Emami •Qasem Soleimani •Qasem Soleimani
He is known as Imam Khomeini, the leader and founder of Islamic Republic of Iran. After Islamic revolution, he was the leader till the end of his life, he passed away in 1989.
He was one of the founders of Iran Freedom Movement. He was appointed as the head of Revolutionary Council after the assassination of Morteza Motahari and became the first Friday prayer Imam to the order of Ayatollah Khomeini. After Islamic Revolution, he was one of the figures who disagreed with compulsory Hijab for women and announced that it should be used voluntarily.
He was popular among all the political parties and groups. He became a member of Assembly of Experts for Constitution and one month later he died very suspiciously.
He was the captain of Iran air force in Pahlavi Dynasty and a member of leadership council in Nojeh coup plot (9 July 1980), his plan was the return of Shapour Bakhtiar, withdrawal of Ayatollah Khomeini and annihilation of Islamic Revolution. He was condemned to shooting in a trial court in 16 July 1980
After Islamic Revolution, he was appointed as the first president of Iran and became commander-in-chief and chairman of Council of the Islamic Revolution. During his presidency, many tensions and challenges such as Cultural Revolution, U.S. Embassy siege and Iran- Iraq war occurred. In 1981, he gave a lecture in Tehran University and declared that prisoners are tortured in jails of Iran. Finally, in May 1981 he was deposed from presidency by the Islamic Consultative Assembly and ran away from Iran in July 1981. He is presently living in Versalles, near Paris.
It is an Iranian political-militant organization based on Islamic and Socialist ideology. Massoud Rajavi and Maryam Rajavi are the leaders of this organization. In 1979 and after Islamic Revolution of Iran, the conflicts between religious department of this organization and Ayatollah Khomeini arose and they opposed Islamic Republic of Iran. On 20 June1981, they announced their purpose is overthrow the system of Islamic Republic of Iran. They moved to Iraq two years after the commencement of Iran- Iraq war and founded The National Liberation Army of Iran with the cooperation of Iraq army, they supported Iraq during the war with Iran.
Their most significant operation was called Foroughe Javidan (Eternal Light) in 1987 and following the operation, a large number of prisoners were executed by Islamic Republic of Iran. There is no exact information about the number of people who were hung but based on the report of Human Rights of the National Unions, it was 1,879 people and other sources estimated it between 3,000 to 4,483 people.
After Islamic Revolution, he was the chief justice of the revolutionary courts in 1979. Many people were hung by his commands during the first years of Islamic Revolution. He died in 2003, at the age of 77, of cancer and heart disease.
He participated in presidential election as the candidate of Democratic alliance of United States and was elected as the 39th president of America. The 14 last months of his presidency, Carter was involved with the hostage of the employees of United States Embassy in Iran. 
He was one of the most influential politicians in Iran:
•First head of Islamic Consultative Assembly
•Fourth president of Iran
•Representative of Khomeini at Defense High Council during Iran- Iraq war who guided Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran
During the 10th presidential election, he supported Mir Hossein Mousavi and in his last Friday prayers as Imam, he criticized the suppression of protestors. He died on 8 January 2017 because of a heart attack while swimming.
Saddam Hussein was the president of Iraq since 1979 to 2003.
After Islamic Revolution he was appointed as the head of Assembly of Experts for Constitution and had a crucial role in the inclusion of the principle of Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist in Iran’s Constitution. In 1985, he was the designated successor to the revolution's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khomeini but he resigned from his position in 1989. The main dispute between Ayatollah Khomeini and Ayatollah Montazeri was the issues of human rights especially mass execution of political prisoners in late summer and early autumn 1988.
He was under house arrest for six years since 1997. During the last months of his life, he became the spiritual leader of the Green Movement by announcing a Fatwa regarding government actions with the protesters of the 10th presidential election. He died in 2009.
Susan Taslimi is an Iranian actress, film director, theatre director, and screenwriter. She is one of the best actresses of Iran’s cinema and the first woman who had her own style in acting. She emigrated from Iran in 1989, now living and working in Sweden. 
In 1988, he flew an Airbus A300 with flight No. R655 from Bandar Abbas to Dubai, the plane was shot down by 2 missiles fired from USS Vincennes. In that attack, he was killed along with all 290 passengers and crews.
He is the second leader of Islamic Republic of Iran. After death of Ruhollah Khomeini he was appointed as the Supreme Leader of Iran by the Assembly of Experts in 1989.
He was the leader of Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan who was assassinated by an unknown group in 13 July 1989 while he was attending in a peaceful talk with the representatives of Islamic Republic of Iran in Vienna.
An Iranian photographer who was the periodical chairman of Magnum since 1998 to 2001. He photographed Islamic Revolution during 1981 till 1983, he declared that taking these photos was done with the purpose of recording them in the history. His book Iran Diary 1971-2002 (2002) is a critical interpretation of its history, photographed and written as a personal diary. Up to now, 11 of his books have been published which show only a small part of his 36-year activity as a photographer. He died in Paris on 25 April 2018, aged 74 because of cancer.
He is the third and current Secretary General of the Lebenese political and parliamentary party Hezbollah since 16th February 1992.
Fereydoun Farrokhzad was an Iranian singer, actor, poet, TV and radio host, writer, and political opposition figure in Pahlavi Empire. He was known as an Iranian political activist and juristic who opposed the government of Islamic Republic of Iran after the Islamic Revolution. He is known as the most famous showman of Iran. On August 8, 1992 Farrokhzad's body was found in the kitchen of his apartment in Bonn, Germany. He had been killed violently, having been stabbed repeatedly in the face and upper torso and his nose, ears and tongue were cut. He was buried in Nordfriedhof of Benn. The murder was widely believed to be the work of Iran's Islamic government but it was never revealed who was in charge of his murder.
He was an Iranian political activist and chief executive officer of National Resistance Movement of Iran and a close friend of Shapour Bakhtiar. On 18 April 1991, he was stabbed in front of the elevator of his apartment in Paris. His assassination was one of the primary actions of Islamic Republic of Iran to overthrow opponents who were abroad and in fact it was done with the purpose of assassinating the founder of this movement i.e. Shapour Bakhtiar in the future.
He was the minister of intelligence in the cabinet of President Rafsanjani from 1989 to 1997. Since 7 November 2007 he is on the official wanted list of Interpol in connection with the bombing of the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA), a Jewish community center in Argentina. He was already in the wanted list of Interpol because of Mykonos assassination and default condemnation in the court of Germany. His name can be observed in the website of Interpol as the runaway accused who had activities against health and lives of the human beings. Some of the events happened during his ministry were chain murders in Iran, suppressing the opponents and economic activities of Intelligence ministry.
He was an Iranian politician who served as deputy prime minister in the Interim Cabinet of Mehdi Bazargan in 1979 and a member of National Front of Iran. He was the first and oldest political prisoner after the Islamic Revolution who was imprisoned since 1979 till 1997. He died of a heart attack in Tehran on 12 July 2018.
He served as the fifth president of Iran from 3 August 1997 to 3 August 2005. He is regarded as leader of reformist in Iran. The most important event happened during his presidency was the protest and attack of Iranian students in Tehran University to reveal and announce that there are arbitrary factors in the Ministry of Intelligence of the Islamic Republic of Iran which show it is involved in chain murders.
He was the commander of Islamic revolutionary Guard Corps since 1980-1997 and the founder of Imam Hossein University, Khatam al-Anbiya Construction Headquarter and Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences. He is also the founder of Ground, Air and Navy Forces of the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution. He was appointed as the member and Secretary of the Expediency Discernment Council in 1997 after resigning from the command of Islamic revolutionary Guard Corps and withdrawal of his military activities. He was the candidate of presidential election in four periods (the sixth, ninth, tenth and eleventh ones), he withdrew of the 9th presidential election and was unsuccessful in the three other elections.
He was the leader of National Party of Iran and minister of labor in Interim Government of Mehdi Bazargan who was assassinated in his home in 1998 with his wife, Parvaneh Eskandari.
He was arrested in Iran Student Protest of July 1999 and was condemned to capital punishment because of taking action against national security of the country. It is believed that one of the reasons which intensified his crime was the publication of his photo on the cover of Economist Magazine. His death sentence was commuted to a 15-year prison term by Iran's Supreme Leader. Around March 2005 and after 9 months of being in jail, Batebi was temporarily released from Evin Prison and abandoned Iran. During the 9 years he was tortured several times and he was in solitary confinement for 17 months. He is currently living in Washington DC and is a human rights activist.
She was an Iranian- Canadian freelance journalist who travelled to Iran and was arrested in the disputes and riots happened in July 2003 while taking photos of the families who were gathered in front of Evin Prison, she was jailed in Evin Prison and died there. She was arrested by the persistence and pressures caused by Saeed Mortazavi. After her death, as she was a Canadian citizen, Iran’s government was under pressure by Canada authorities.
He was demoted to deputy prosecutor-general during 2009-2010. He is known because of shut down of the press, torture and death in custody of Iranian- Canadian photographer i.e. Zahra Kazemi and torture of the protestors of presidential election held in 2009.
He was the sixth president of Iran since 2005 to 2013. He was elected as the president of Iran for the second time in 2009 following a controversial election. Nuclear programs of Iran were advanced during his presidency although there were international pressures which led to the economic sanctions of the United Nations Security Council, America and Europe against Iran.
He is an Iranian reformist theorist who was assassinated on the doorstep of City Council of Tehran in March 2000 which was not successful and he survived.
He was the seventy-ninth and last Prime Minister of Iran, he was the candidate of Reformist alliance in the 10th presidential election of Iran. According to official results, he did not win the election in 2009 and wrote a letter to Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran to show his objection to the infractions of the election. His followers are called the Green Movement and following alleged vote rigging and manipulation, they sparked a long protest which was suppressed by security guards of Islamic Republic of Iran. Mir Hossein Mousavi and his wife are under house arrest since 14 February 2011.
An Iranian musician, composer and singer who is called Iran's greatest living maestro of Persian classical music. After the 10th presidential election and its relevant challenges, he asked IRIB (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting) to stop broadcasting his songs.
He is the former chairman of Bank Melli Iran who was involved in Iranian embezzlement scandal of roughly 2.6 billion dollars. In September 2011, he abandoned Iran in order to apparently attend a meeting at Lloyd Bank in United Kingdom. He has been presently living in Toronto.
He was an Iranian military officer in the Aerospace Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and designer of Iran's ballistic missile project and he is known as the father of Iran's missile program. The Bid Kaneh arsenal explosion was a very large explosion that occurred on 12 November 2011 at the missile garrison of Modares. Seventeen members of the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were killed in the incident among them was the father of Iran's missile program.
He is the second and forth president of Russia after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. He travelled to Iran four times since 2007 to 2018 and met with the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei and has close ties and friendly relationship with the president of Iran, Hassan Rouhani
She is a human rights activist, juristic and lawyer in Iran. She is a member of different associations such as Defenders of Human Rights Center, One Million Signatures for the Repeal of Discriminatory Laws against discriminative rules against women and Iran Society for Protecting the Rights of Children. She was in charge of many legal cases such as human rights activists, women rights activists, children who faced child abuse and the children who were sentenced to death penalty. In 2009, she won Human Rights Award of International Human Rights Organization. She was imprisoned since August 2010 till August 2013 in Evin Prison because of endangering National Security. After being released, her attorney’s license was terminated for 3 years since October 2014.
She was also the lawyer of Girls of Enghelab Street (a series of protests against compulsory hijab) and she was arrested and imprisoned accordingly.
He is the foreign minister of Iran in the 12th government. On 27 September 2013 and after 34 years, the first meeting between supreme officials of Iran and United States was held in which Mohammad Javad Zarif met with United States Secretary of State John Kerry. During his tenure as foreign minister, he led the Iranian negotiations with P5+1 countries which produced the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on 14 July 2015 in Vienna and after 22 months of talks and negotiations.
He was an Iranian director, screenwriter, editor, photographer, producer, graphic designer and international art director as well as author and painter. He is an influential film-maker in the world cinema. He started his activity in cinema since 1970 and produced more than 40 feature films, short movies and documentaries. He is the most honored Iranian artist who had 32 personal achievements. He died on 4 July 2016 due to cancer.
She is known as girl of Enghelab Street who stood in the crowd on a utility box and symbolically tied her hijab, a white headscarf, to a stick, and waved it to the crowd as a flag in the Enghelab–Vesal Junction in Tehran on 27 December 2017 and shook it to show her objection to compulsory Hijab. Her action led to the formation of a campaign called “Girls of Enghelab Street”. Vida Movahed was sentenced to one-year prison. On 29 October 2018, she objected to the compulsory Hijab for the second time and stood on the dome of Enghelab square while having several colorful balloons in her hands.
He was an Iranian prominent environmentalist, disabled veteran of Iran- Iraq war, CEO of Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation (PWHF), the chairman of Asiatic Cheetah project, he had PhD in sociology. He was imprisoned because of spying. On 8 February 2018, his family was informed of his death in Evin Prison of Tehran and the officials claimed that he committed suicide. After that some of the environmentalists were imprisoned in Iran, they were guilty of revealing classified information of Iran to the Intelligence Agencies of Israel and America.
He is Major General in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRCG) and since 1998 commander of its Quds Force. During the Imposed War, he was the commander of 41st Sarallah Division of Kerman during Iran- Iraq war. He was later involved in extraterritorial operations, providing military assistance to anti-Saddam Shia and Kurdish groups in Iraq, and later Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hemas in the Palestinian territories. Soleimani also assisted in the command of combined Iraqi government and Shia militia forces that advanced against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in 2014- 2015.
He is Major General in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRCG) and since 1998 commander of its Quds Force. During the Imposed War, he was the commander of 41st Sarallah Division of Kerman during Iran- Iraq war. He was later involved in extraterritorial operations, providing military assistance to anti-Saddam Shia and Kurdish groups in Iraq, and later Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hemas in the Palestinian territories. Soleimani also assisted in the command of combined Iraqi government and Shia militia forces that advanced against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in 2014- 2015.