The project must remain anonymous for safety. The author will use a pseudonym in case of public announcement and exhibition.

In 2022, a soldier (27) was executed in Rasht, Iran after being condemned for the murder of a head officer who had opposed his request to exempt him from military service.
Military service of up to 24 months is compulsory for Iranian men aged 18 until 40. There are limited exemptions but not for conscientious objection. Those men are called mashmul in farsi language (مشمول), meaning liable to conscription. Until he has completed his military duties, an Iranian man will not possess a valid passport therefore will not be allowed to leave the country, unless granted a permission. He will also not be allowed to register official documents to purchase a car or a home, get housing loan from a bank, receive a government’s pension or work for the government.
Yet many refuse to enrol because of the ideology this system represents, the freedom it takes off them or the work conditions they might face. Some took great risks or acted illegally to dodge the military service. Some failed or gave up and enrolled to get freedom back and build a future. Others are considered deserters, expose themselves to criminal prosecutions and remain unable to leave Iran.
In the series, the anonymous portraits contrast with the depictions of dead soldiers erected all over the country, an ideological system of the Islamic Republic that prospers on the glorification of martyrdom. Ever since the war against Irak in the 1980’s, the government has used images as a propaganda tool to mythologise the martyrs and mobilise Iranians.
While the subjects of this work keep their visages hidden for safety, they are surrounded everyday by the faces of dead soldiers, evolving in a public space turned into an ideological space. By producing these images in all corners of the country, the Islamic Republic has created a state and a culture of martyrdom. Those men occupy the same ideological space and yet live in different realities.
I seek to understand what happens to those who don’t comply with the system and the vision of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The images that manipulate are confronted to the ones that tell personal realities. This work relates their experiences with mandatory military service and the impact of its system on them. It documents the situations they face and their responses to issues with their freedom and rights amidst a backdrop of relentless propaganda.