Sensitive content

September 2022 saw the rise of a wave of worldwide protests around the death of Jina ‘Mahsa’ Amini in Iran. Amini, a member of the Kurdish minority, had been arrested in Tehran by the Guidance Patrol for not wearing her headscarf in accordance with Iran’s hijab standards. She was originally reported to have died of complications after a heart attack. However, other reports and leaked images emerged, suggesting that Amini had been beaten and her death was a direct result of police brutality. In the aftermath of Amini’s death, protests erupted in various cities in Iran as well as around the world, protesting the Iranian regime and the morality laws that ostensibly led to this incident, as well as amplifying the ongoing struggles of the Kurdish people.

‘Sensitive Content.’ October 2022. Perth, Western Australia. Photograph © Marziya Mohammedali.

While images of Amini became a key part of the protests, replicated on banners and placards, printed on shirts and painted on walls, it became evident that much of the imagery from within Iran was being heavily suppressed. Official coverage of the protests was limited to a few approved outlets sharing carefully structured narratives that did not acknowledge the intensity of the situation. For the most part, Iranians used social media to share pictures and video despite restrictions on internet access, as well as through secret Telegram channels, revealing the violence and stories that were left out of state coverage as well as the defiance of the protestors. These images were also subject to restrictions, with limitations on access due to the graphic content, as well as attacks and reporting of images by opponents to try and have them removed.

This image is from one of the protests held by the Iranian diaspora community in Perth, Western Australia. The picture shows two people hiding behind a placard that subverts the ‘Sensitive content’ icon from Instagram by adding a message: Your sensitive content is Iran’s daily life. The icon, which sometimes comes up over a blurred image on the platform, is usually intended to protect the viewer from accidentally stumbling on graphic images of violence, harm or death. While it is implemented as a protection mechanism, it can also be seen as a reflection of the censorship that surrounds certain narratives, such as around Jina Amini’s death and the subsequent protests. The message around sensitive content becomes multiply layered, a commentary on how the digital space can both amplify and restrict access to important images and stories, taken further by the positioning of the people in the image. They chose to hide their identities by obscuring their faces behind the placard, positioning themselves as the sensitive content and bringing this form of restriction into the physical protest space. At the same time, they also bring a defiance in the form of their coordinated victory symbols being flashed on either side of the sign, bearing witness to the gathering and offering support through their presence.

In my practice as a protest photographer, particularly as one who uses photography both to create artefacts and documentation of activism, I am primarily concerned with being a witness. This is not limited to simply framing the photographic encounter, but also engaging with people I am photographing. In my brief conversation with the couple holding this sign, they told me how they were worried, not for themselves, but for their relatives back in Iran. They wanted to show their support for the protests and send a message about the silencing, but were also bitterly aware of the impact that being seen at a protest might have. Reflecting on my task, the words on the placard become even more important: the sensitive content is not just the image but everything that surrounds it, that is tied into this encounter. It also highlights how our interaction led to the image being created in this way: rather than a conventional protest picture of someone holding a sign, allowing the people being photographed to choose how they are going to be portrayed resulted in a more complex visual construction that prompts the viewer to think, what exactly is meant by sensitive content and who is being referred to here.