Iran Revealed Exhibit
film | PHOTOGRAPHY | exhibit
film
Katayoun “Kat” Khosrowyar, always knew she wanted to play soccer and somehow change the world. One summer in Iran, she heard about Iranian National Women’s Soccer team being developed. Out of curiosity, she attended the tryouts, and to her disbelief she was selected to be a part of the team. She also graduated with honors from the University of Birmingham in the UK with a Master’s in Chemical Engineering. Her mission and passion have always been championing women’s rights to play sports in Iran, and bridging the gap between her two cultures; American and Iranian. She further excelled in her soccer career and became the first woman representing Iran to receive the FIFA/AFC ‘A’ license for coaching soccer.
She has been published in many articles and documentaries for her efforts and developments in empowering young girls and women in sports. Kat currently is an academy head coach for Reign FC. She became the first ever Iranian female coach in the National Women’s League and at the highest level in the world of football.
Sina Winter is a composer and front man of "From the Vastland". Sina is one of the very few musicians who dared to defy the system to start a black metal project in his home land, Iran. During his career, Sina has released over 10 albums. His music is strongly influenced by Persian history and mythology. After never giving up, his efforts really paid off. Sina was invited to travel to Norway, the birthplace of black metal, to perform at one of the biggest festivals, Inferno Festival, in Oslo. He has also been featured in the documentary Black Hearts and recently signed a record deal with Norwegain label “Indie Recordings”
Learn more about Sina and From the Vastland at: fromthevastland.com
Negin Ehtesabian is a visual artist, illustrator and muralist who explores cultural archetypes, intercultural mythologies, and identity through painting, drawing, collage, photography and mix-media.
She is also a social activist in feminism and environmental issues. Her work has been selected in many international exhibitions in UAE, USA, Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, Canada, Slovakia, Serbia, Denmark, Portugal, Azerbaijan, Japan, Norway, Bulgaria, Netherlands, Croatia and Iran since 2001. She is the author of four children books and has written articles and critics about illustration in Iranian educational and art magazines.
In 2009-2012 Participated in the group Intercultural collaborative new media art projects "IRUS art" and “My Night/Your Day” between Iranian and American artists founded by Morehshin Allahyari, and led the Iranian teams through the several collaborative exhibition in USA and Canada. In 2016 she was awarded the honoree prize as one of the best three illustrators in 30 years of Iranian literature, from Center for Literature Studies, University of Shiraz, Iran. In 2007 she won the Plaque of 44th International Golden Pen of Belgrade biennial/ Serbia, and in 2004 Encouragement prize of Noma concurs in Japan.
Elaheh Mansourian is an Iranian wushu athlete who competes in the sanda 52 kg division. She held the world title in 2013 and 2017 and won three medals at the Asian Games in 2014–2018. Despite a life of poverty, Elahe has battled her way to multiple championships. No matter how many obstacles she faces every day, she is still pursuing her Olympic dream.
Thunder, is an Iranian rock band formed in 1998 by Ardavan Anzabipour (singer-songwriter). From 2010 to 2015 they shifted from Country-Rock to Hard Rock and some changes happened in Thunder’s line up. Bita Sadeghi (Guitar 2010) , Aydin Anzabipour (Drums 2011) Mohammad Barzideh (2011) by playing Guitar. Lastly, from the winter of 2016, Kaveh Vaziri joined the band as a Bass player. Thunder performs original tracks. Their performances are full of energy, top notch production values and a powerful sound, which has never been allowed in Iran. To this day, Thunder has performed about 30 concerts in Iran and about 10 abroad (Ukraine, Turkey, U.A.E. and Cyprus). In the fall of 2016 the band suffered a setback. The Iranian government imposed a 30 month work prohibition punishment for moving on stage more than it is allowed. This did not deter them from pursuing their music careers and most importantly, the effort to create a change in culture and society in Iran.
After that period of punishment, they came back to the stage stronger and with a new album in their hands. They are now just about to send out a new release. Learn more about them at: thunder-band.com
Faranak Partoazar was born in 1988 in Shiraz, Iran. Despite the strict and traditional society of Iran, she always followed her passion: Mountain cycling. Her real fights started long before she could even compete on a race track as she had to fight passionately to get the right to ride the bike freely as a girl. Her determination and persistency defeated all those against her.
She started her professional career in 2014 joining the national team. She has won all national titles in Iran as well as the winning the first ever medals in Asian championships in Iranian women cycling history. She has won several more international competitions. She passionately looks for her biggest dream to be amongst the world top mountain bikers. On top of that, she also has a Master’s degree in structural engineering.
Mitra is a hip hop dancer from Tehran who discovered her talent for dancing at a very young age. She unfortunately didn’t have the right support to attend classes but her passion was stronger and never gave up.
When she was 16, she started dancing with music videos and learning the sequences. Her dream is to be in a hip hop crew and move to a place where she can dance without restrictions.
