Laleh Sherkat: Photographing Iran, 1984 - 1993 “Women at Work” (1988)

Courtesy of Laleh Sherkat 

The photos in Women at Work were taken for Laleh’s undergraduate thesis, and capture women working in five different factories in southern Tehran and its outskirts.

There are over 100 photographs in this series.

Laleh would arrive at the factories around 5am, just as women were arriving for their shift. The factories were often dark, crowded and noisy, and the work repetitive and strenuous. Women were paid less than their male peers for the same roles. 

Laleh wanted to bring attention to the poor working conditions and injustice that the women workers faced through this body of work, as well as the women’s resilience and the friendships and support they showed one another.

Workers in a factory processing papers, wearing hooded jackets, with boxes of paper on a table.

Black-and-white landscape photograph of three women working in a warehouse or factory setting, surrounded by machinery, tables, and stacks of fabric. The woman on the left is seated at a machine facing to the right and away from the camera. She is holding scissors and helping the woman in the centre, sitting at the same machine and facing the camera. She guides a piece of fabric through the machine and covers her mouth while smiling at the camera. The third woman, standing in front of but to the right side of the woman in the centre, is standing over the table in the foreground, sorting through some boxes while smiling downward. The background consists of shelves, storage containers, and curtains dividing workspaces.  

A woman sitting on the ground amid large bags and containers, holding a small object in her hands, in an indoor setting with rough brick and concrete walls.

Black-and-white landscape photograph of a woman seated on a sack on the ground, working with a pile of spools of thread in front of her. She is sorting them, separating the bad from the good. She is surrounded by large sacks stacked against a rough-textured wall, with additional stacks and containers surrounding her. 

A woman wearing a dark headscarf working at a textile machine in a factory.

Black-and-white landscape photograph of a woman at work in a textile factory. Positioned to the left of the frame, she sits at a long metal table, facing the camera while guiding a length of fabric through a machine. She wears a headscarf and keeps her gaze down, focused on her task. Behind her, a series of industrial machines line the right side of the space, pulling threads from spools arranged on tall racks to the left. The parallel lines of stretched threads create a strong visual effect, drawing the eye diagonally across the composition from left to right.

A woman wearing a headscarf and military-style coat stands in the foreground of a group of kneeling women also dressed in headscarves, with some holding glasses, inside a building.

Black-and-white landscape photograph of a group of women taking a break during their workday in a dimly lit space, with sunlight streaming in, shining on some and casting shadows on others. A woman in the foreground on the right of the image stands in the doorway facing the camera, wearing a worn work coat with visible stains. Behind her, several other women, some sitting, some standing, engage in conversation and drink, some are gesturing while they speak and some are smiling. 

A woman in a dark coat and headscarf is holding her head with a distressed expression inside a textile factory with spools of thread and machinery.

Black-and-white landscape photograph of a woman in a textile factory surrounded by machinery. Positioned to the left of the frame, the woman stands beside a row of large industrial machines threaded with numerous spools. She is dressed entirely in dark clothing and looks directly at the camera. Her right hand is raised to cover her right ear, and her face shows a visible grimace in response to the loud noise of the surrounding equipment. Threads stretch overhead in neat rows, creating a dense industrial backdrop that emphasizes the intensity of the workspace.