The Dormitory Project: Showing the Lives of Female Students as They Really Are

New work by Shiraz-based photographer Maryam Nematollahi subverts the tired, out-of-step, stereotypical narratives so often presented about women in Iran today. It offers a unique insight into the ordinary lives of young women and lets their stories speak for themselves. 

The Dormitory Project, the product of years of work, is a collection of direct, honest and uncensored photographs of the lives of female students. It aims to capture their joys, fears and hopes, all of which make up a remarkable social documentary. 

The lives the dormitory collection depicts are in stark contrast to the official narrative of women’s lives in Iran. Because of the subject matter, it is not possible to exhibit the photographs legally in an Iranian gallery, or for the photographer to engage directly with her audience. Instead, the artist has posted the images on Instagram, as she has been doing with much of her work over the last several years.

It is rare for the intimate details of women's lives to be shown in the public sphere. On television and in the official media, women are usually shown in hijab, even when they are asleep. Since Nematollahi began showing it online, the work has provoked mixed reactions, including admiration, accusations of misrepresentation, threats, and encouragement.

Maryam Nematollahi was born in 1984, and graduated with a Master's degree in photography from the Faculty of Arts of the University of Tehran. She is currently a lecturer in photography. In an interview with IranWire, she talked of the spontaneous, evolutionary way the project came about. “I normally do not elaborate on my subject but try to move around the matter, so that the subject, according to circumstances, finds its way and moves me forward. But during the execution of the project, I gradually realized exactly what I was doing. The dormitory collection was not designed to be, for example, a feminist or political work, or an approach to a forbidden subject; but rather to be a part of my own daily life and that of my friends.”

Not a Double Life — A Real One

She says she wanted to capture moments in people's lives, and did not ask her subjects to wear hijab or pose or help her create a suitable space for her project. If she had, she said, the collection would have been artificial and contrived, and could even be disturbing for her audience. “In 2014, I came up with this idea, an exercise where I visited dormitories in Tehran and later in Shiraz. I continued it seriously and took pictures of their tears, joys, sorrows, cups of tea with friends, the relationships in their small community. They were part of my own life and a reflection of my concerns. A few years later, I noticed a different type of feedback, and the photos were criticized from a political and social point of view."

Asked if she was trying to contribute to some kind of change in society, she said: "The photographer in contemporary documentary photography is not looking to change things, but whether he or she wants it or not, this change will happen. I have criticized the general belief about the role of Iranian women as presented on TV and commented that Iranian women have no practical freedoms in dress or lifestyle."

She says she did not want to suggest that the Iranian woman leads a double life, or that she is different inside and outside the house, but that she wanted to look at her subjects’ limited lifestyle in an untouched way, knowing that some of what she looks at touch on her own concerns.

Her audience is made of of both men and women, she says, drawing attention to aspects of life with which they might not be familiar. ”Details, perhaps not so important, the placement of dishes and utensils and [aspects of] lifestyle, the decorations in rooms, slumber parties, gatherings, tiny interactions, paying attention to women’s lives in their small private space and the fact that they are not strange creatures, should probably be interesting for those who have no idea of this matter.”

Nematollahi also talked about criticism she had faced in the past. "My main concern has always been women," Nematollahi said. “Early on, when I was showing the photos, I was confronted with protest from some men who said: Iranian women are important, there are important Iranian doctors or engineers; why did you show her like this? And I was asking the same thing: does an Iranian woman not have a private life? Does she always come and go at home in her medical and engineering uniform and sleep in the same clothes? Doesn't an Iranian woman have other parts of her life? I wanted to talk about those other invisible aspects, which have not been very agreeable to talk about for years.”

Non-Iranian audiences who have seen her work have been in touch, claiming they never knew Iranian women’s lives might be like this.“They write that they did not believe that the life of an Iranian student was so modern and up to date. I think the reason is that we've always heard two stories about Iranian women, and maybe none of them are close to the truth of their lives: whether in TV series and official narratives presented by the media, where the women are washed and veiled creatures, or in the exotic works of some photographers who feed the foreign festivals and do not like to portray women in chador and burqas or living under exaggerated restrictions. One day a Western photographer told me: the woman in your photos are no different from my subjects and the women I meet on a daily basis.”

Subverting Notions About Women’s Lives

“The dormitory collection searches to desensitize the existing concepts around the category of ‘woman,’ transforming those sensitivities into a normal thing,” N said, adding that the opportunity to reproduce the work multiple times for multiple public audiences has helped drive her message. “I am happy to have been able to remove those walls,” she said. “The images in this collection are intended to transcend the concept of woman as a cultural creature and to make her primarily a human being with all her characteristics and needs: needs such as happiness and liberation.”

Given her experience and that of her friends who are photographers, she says there is still very little scope for women to work as photographers in news or advertising. There is still a long way until they have full participation and equality. "Women are still not given important photography assignments, and if the job involves risks, women won’t get it on the pretext that there are safety concerns. In advertising and industrial photography, which deals with products from factories and various industries, women are often not trusted because there’s a misconception that they are technically inferior to male photographers."

Iranian male photographers have far more opportunities to experiment and use new technologies, and with these opportunities come skill and technique. “Sometimes the absence of women is not due to their lack of experience, but because they do not enjoy level playing fields and aren’t given the chance to learn by trial and error. There seems to be a kind of deliberate neglect."

At the same time, she says she cannot deny that being a woman has helped her, particularly during the dormitory project. “I could enter the women's private space with my camera, and naturally if I were a male photographer, I wouldn't be allowed to enter the women's dormitories. Also, because I'm dealing with people's private space, there's definitely more trust in a female photographer. However, I have always wanted equal opportunities and I want to grow based on my competence and independent from the fact that I am a woman.”

No Shame in Ordinary Life 

Beyond criticism that she was turning her lens on the “wrong kind of woman” — not an engineer or a doctor, but on ordinary women — she has faced other complaints, from both individuals and from the art community. 

“One day, I got a call from the Isfahan Art Center. They asked, ‘what were these photos that were being circulated online?' They thought it was embarrassing the photos were published. Later, one of the reputable photography  websites posted a number of my photos, but it was attacked so badly that it immediately removed them.”

She says her photographs have even been labeled vulgar and provocative. “The truth is that I am a direct narrator of people’s lives and there is nothing shameful about people’s lives.”