Forough Alaei
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Women follow the AFC Champions League Cup match between Iran’s Persepolis and Japan’s Kashima Antlers from a segregated section of a stand at the Azadi Stadium, Tehran.
Forough Alaei was born in 1989 in Iran, where she studied law. She was also a keen painter. Forough started photography in 2015 and became a photojournalist. In a short time, she became fond of documentary photography and filmmaking. Forough had a World Press Photo tour through many countries in 2019. She also won three first prizes in 2019 for her work on Iranian female football fans including World Press Photo (Sports Category), POYi (multimedia daily life category), and Istanbul Photo Awards (sports category). Forough won Getty Images’ Editorial Grants in 2020. She also had some solo and group exhibitions in different countries such as Switzerland, Germany, France, and the US during 2021-2023. Her works have been published in different media such as Time, The New Yorker, The Guardian, Paris Match, Le Monde, Foreign Policy, Marie Claire, NZZ Newspaper, Amnesty International, Refinery29, De Volkskrant, Zeit and others.
Categories judged by Forough: Nature & Environment / Recreational & Traditional Sports / Sports Action / Daily Life / Daily Life Picture Story / Issue Reporting Picture Story / Photographer of the Year, Asia
Quick links to POY Asia 2024 Judges: Gülbin Özdamar Akarçay / Lam Chun Tung / Forough Alaei / Wan Chantavilasvong / Joshua Irwandi / Jessica Lim / Saiyna Bashir / Steven Lee / Yuki Tanaka / Shuchi Kapoor
A make-up artist applies a false beard to the face of Zeinab. She is a female football fan eager to attend a national match at the Azadi Stadium in Tehran, Iran. She risks arrest by going.
"Photography is a way for me to breathe and tell stories. I’m a storyteller and I believe a camera is my second language for telling stories. I’m very curious about looking for a way to show untold stories about people and social issues through my lens."
Forough Alaei
The girls show solidarity with other women in Iran on these days who want their rights to be free and have comfortable lives.
A typical family is swimming in the Caspian Sea. Mahmudabad is a coastal city which is popular among Iranians. It attracts many people of different classes every year. There are some special surrounded places in Caspian Sea where only women can swim freely; but in public places they have to wear hijab.
Maryam Talaee is a moto-race champion. She is among the first girls who rode on this field in Iran. She is preparing for riding in a track. She used to live for 20 years in Canada and became the youngest entrepreneur of Ontario state in 2007. Maryam bought her first bike in 2008 and started going on long trips with motorcycles. In 2019, she had a long trip in Africa for 8,800 km with motorcycle. Maryam came to Iran in 2015 and with a few other girls tried to initiate motor racing field for women there. Although women cannot ride motorcycles on streets because there is no license for them in Iran, motor racing has become a sport for women since then. She is now a multifunctional ultra-high energy woman. Besides a professional racer, Maryam teaches motorcycling to newcomers. “I want to see the day when all the female fans of racing can ride either on streets or on the track”, she says. Maryam works also as the manager of MRT Group, a famous car running center in Iran.
A girl performs flow art at a park in Tehran as a hubby in weekends. Parks and cafes are places that host young boys and girls on weekend. Unlike their parents who were mostly separated, they mostly have fun together in these places.
