Minna and Fariba are neighbours and good friends. They support one another. Both have to live under the pervasive curtailment of women's rights and the double standards of today's Iranian society. They make a living walking the streets looking for men. They have a choice between leaving their small children at home alone or bringing them along when they have sex with men.
The film is a sympathetic portrait of the two women, exploring their day-to-day life and the workings of prostitution in a country that bans it and prosecutes adulterers, sometimes with the penalty of capital punishment.
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Danish Film Institute
Persson, who left Iran for Sweden two decades ago, says she met and befriended Fariba and Minna while filming a fortune-teller in Tehran about two years ago. She says the women were happy that someone was interested in their plight.
Once filming began, Persson says she was herself at risk filming in Iran -- where prostitution is illegal and adulterers can face the death penalty.
"We had a natural relation. We trusted each other," Persson says. "They even asked me on several occasions to go with them when they were going to meet some of their regular customers, because they were from some police station. But I didn't do it out of the fear that I had to film someone who wears the uniform of a pasdar [Iran's Revolutionary Guard]. And it was also better for them that I didn't do it."
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Fariba and Minna are close friends who provide each other with support. Persson describes their lives: "Their life was about finding clients and getting money so that they could buy an egg or some food for their children. And because of their addiction, they had to buy heroin. They didn't have a normal life. When one becomes addicted to drugs, one forgets about [real] life."
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Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
Prostitution Behind the Veil
on YouTube
