Best Work by an Emerging Photographer | Nominee

Nazanin Hafez

Saarbrücken / DE

Leila

Concept

Acid attack is a crime that occurs especially in developing countries where gender gap, discrimination and violence against women are more prevalent. In Iran, a large proportion of victims are women, who in most cases are victims of domestic violence. The purpose of the acid attack is to isolate and eliminate the presence of women in society and to leave a lifetime of suffering from burns.

Leila was an accountant at a clinic who was acid-attacked by the clinic housekeeper. Unlike many acid attacks, her story has no romance and Leila still does not know exactly why he did this to her.

Ever since this happened, laughter has hardly come to her lips and her whole life is tied to the nightmares of that accident. She stays at home and leaves the house only for treatment, because she cannot stand the humiliating looks and the reproachful questions of others.

“I do not want this happen to anyone anymore. I will become stronger Leila” she said.

Vita

Nazanin Hafez (born in 1991 in Shiraz, Iran), is a visual artist based in Iran and Germany. She got her B.A. in Media Art and Design from Saar College of Fine Arts in Saarbrücken, Germany. She is currently pursuing her Postgraduate Studies at Academy of Fine Arts in Mainz.

Most of her artworks express social and political critiques especially towards the Islamic Republic regime, which she incorporates into various art forms specially photography, collage and installation.