German-Iranian photographer Mahdi Ehsaei has spent the last three years documenting a lesser known community in his home country: Iranians of African heritage. His portraits, taken in Iran’s southern province of Hormozgan, document the country’s participation in the Indian Ocean slave trade until the practice was abolished in 1928. The photos appear in his recently published book, Afro-Iran, the Unknown Minority.
Few Iranians are aware of this part of their history or even the presence of Afro-Iranians in their country, according to Ehsaei, who first became interested in the topic after watching a team from Hormozgan play in a football match. He noticed the team’s fan leader was a black Iranian man who led the supporters in a song that struck Ehsaei as more African than Iranian. Ehsaei began researching the topic and eventually raised money online to fund part of the project. [...]
Aside from their color and their concentration in particular locations, Afro-Iranians aren’t any different than other Iranians. They feel Iranian and feel uncomfortable when asked about their origins. Some of them know of their cultural background, some don’t.
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