This photojournalist captured women in Iran from the hostage crisis to the nuclear deal
A female taxi driver in Tehran. This photo is one of a collection that photographer Randy Goodman shot on her trip last year to Iran, her first in 33 years. She made another trip during the Iranian Hostage crisis, chronicling women in the early days of the Iranian revolution.
She had just graduated with a Master's degree from Boston University when opportunity knocked on the door.
A journalist friend asked Randy Goodman whether she wanted to accompany a group of 50 Americans who were about to travel to Iran.
It was 1980 and only three months into the US Embassy hostage crisis. Iranian students had stormed the US Embassy in Tehran and held 52 Americans hostage.
Some of the students involved in the hostage taking had previously studied in the US.
"Two months into the hostage taking, having listened in on what's happening in the US media, they felt that the American population was not getting any depth and understanding," Goodman explains. So they invited the Americans to come to Iran.
"I was young, I was 24 years old, very interested in world politics and a journalist friend of mine asked me if I wanted to be the photographer for this delegation of 50 Americans," Goodman says.
Of course she said yes — a decision that led to high-profile presentation of her in places such as the Washington Post.
"As the photographer, often I didn't get into the nitty-gritty of the conversation but I was there to photograph the interactions, the visits, the interviews, the conversations," she says.
Goodman took lots of photos and upon her return, she realized that most of the subjects in her photos were women. She was able to make another trip, in 1983, but that was it.
Thirty-three years went by and last year, as the Iran nuclear deal was being hammered out, Goodman managed to go back to Iran again.
She wanted to find out how things have changed for people like the women she had photographed all those years ago. What she did find was a country in transition.
The signature image from Goodman's last trip to Iran? A woman in a green taxi.
"Her rear-view mirror is broken, she has obviously been driving that cab for a while — not that she gets into lots of accidents," Goodman explains, adding that this women's taxi expresses how women in Iran today can be entrepreneurs and active in the workforce.
Randy Goodman's photo exhibition is called "Iran: Women Only."
It's held at The Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University and runs until August 28. See more of her work here.
She had just graduated with a Master's degree from Boston University when opportunity knocked on the door.
A journalist friend asked Randy Goodman whether she wanted to accompany a group of 50 Americans who were about to travel to Iran.
It was 1980 and only three months into the US Embassy hostage crisis. Iranian students had stormed the US Embassy in Tehran and held 52 Americans hostage.
Some of the students involved in the hostage taking had previously studied in the US.
"Two months into the hostage taking, having listened in on what's happening in the US media, they felt that the American population was not getting any depth and understanding," Goodman explains. So they invited the Americans to come to Iran.
"I was young, I was 24 years old, very interested in world politics and a journalist friend of mine asked me if I wanted to be the photographer for this delegation of 50 Americans," Goodman says.
Of course she said yes — a decision that led to high-profile presentation of her in places such as the Washington Post.
"As the photographer, often I didn't get into the nitty-gritty of the conversation but I was there to photograph the interactions, the visits, the interviews, the conversations," she says.
Goodman took lots of photos and upon her return, she realized that most of the subjects in her photos were women. She was able to make another trip, in 1983, but that was it.
Thirty-three years went by and last year, as the Iran nuclear deal was being hammered out, Goodman managed to go back to Iran again.
She wanted to find out how things have changed for people like the women she had photographed all those years ago. What she did find was a country in transition.
The signature image from Goodman's last trip to Iran? A woman in a green taxi.
"Her rear-view mirror is broken, she has obviously been driving that cab for a while — not that she gets into lots of accidents," Goodman explains, adding that this women's taxi expresses how women in Iran today can be entrepreneurs and active in the workforce.
Randy Goodman's photo exhibition is called "Iran: Women Only."
It's held at The Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University and runs until August 28. See more of her work here.