Hoda Afshar's Photobook 'Speak the Wind' Captures Zār Rituals in Iran's Strait of Hormuz

Hoda Afshar's photobook 'Speak the Wind' documents the zār, a malevolent wind believed to possess people along Iran's south coast, requiring shaman-led exorcism ceremonies. The Tehran-born, Melbourne-based photographer began this project in 2015, focusing on the Strait of Hormuz islands of Qeshm, Hormuz, and Hengām. Her black-and-white photographs are organized into three sections interspersed with color landscape and portrait images, capturing eroded desert formations that resemble human figures. Accompanying statements from affected individuals describe sensations like 'Something was moving under my skin,' while sequences show ritual exorcisms with figures cloaked in white cloth. Afshar deliberately avoids Western documentary approaches, instead creating moody, layered compositions that fuse people, culture, and landscape. Michael Taussig's essay in the book addresses the region's layered history, including African slaves brought by Muslim traders. One striking image shows Hormuz Island's iron oxide-rich soil creating blood-like washes where sea meets land, merging human and geological histories. Published by MACK, the work appeared in ArtReview Asia's Autumn 2021 issue. Afshar positions her photography against imperial extraction traditions, using the wind as a metaphor to reveal buried stories rather than explain customs objectively.