Project Detail: SAMIRA

Contest:

Reportage and Documentary 2019



Brand:

LuganoPhotoDays



Author:

Sadegh Souri

Status:
Selected

 

Project Info

SAMIRA

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Because of her father’s addiction and beatings, Samira commits suicide twice at the age of 15. Her father used to harass his family whenever he used drugs at home. In her second attempt, Samira uses gas for suicide, yet her mother arrives and saves her. Samira tells her mother that whether she or her father should live in this world ... After a while, Samira, her sister, Somayeh, and her mother decide to kill the man. Samira’s father travels to Zanjan and one night he returns home without notice. Nobody knows about his return; so, they decide to execute the murder plan. After eating dinner and using drugs, her father goes to bed. Samira’s mother lays next to her husband and wraps a shawl around his neck. Samira and her sister pull the two ends of the shawl, yet they are scared and drop the shawl. Samira’s mother continues and chokes her husband to death. After the murder, her mother consults with her boyfriend and together they decide to bury the body in their house with the help of Samira and Somayeh. After a few months they move to another house. Two months later, the new tenant finds the body and following police interrogations, her mother confesses to the murder with the help of her children. Samira and her sister are sent to a “Correction and Rehabilitation Center (Prison)” and their mother is sent to the adult prison. At the age of 17, Samira is sentenced to death and at the age of 18, she is transferred to an “adult prison”, where she is molested. Unable to tolerate terrible psychological pressures, Samira decides to tell the truth. At the court hearing, she confesses that she and her sister have only witnessed the crime that night and their mother has committed the murder on her own. Regarding her silence, she tells the court that she had thought that if 3 people take the blame for the murder, they won’t be sentenced to death or execution.
After hearing her confessions and conducting investigations, the judge sentences “Samira” to five years in prison for collaborating in the murder and burying the body. She had already spent 3 years in the “Correction and Rehabilitation Center” and 2 years in “Adult Prison”; thus, she was released from prison at the age of 20. The court concludes that Samira’s sister has not been in full mental health at the time of crime and in accordance with the article 92 of the Islamic Penal Code, she is released from prison (two years after the release of Samira). Her mother is still in prison.
SAMIRA AND HER HUSBAND AND NEW THEIR DAUGHTER LIVE IN PARIS -FRANCE.

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