Nian Rad

Mahabad — An elderly woman wearing a white scarf raises her trembling hands to point at her scarred neck, where traces of mustard gas burns remain — a deep wound from 38 years ago, when she threw herself over a bomb during the chemical attack on Sardasht to protect her two children. She saved one, but lost the other.

The features of her face embody a mixture of maternal pride and eternal sorrow, while the black-and-white tones lend the photograph a timeless quality, capturing a moment of sacrifice and portraying a silent scream — one that speaks for mothers the world over, seen as the true victims of chemical warfare.

This story explains one of the photographs showcased in the exhibition "Silent Wounds", held in the city of Mahabad to shed light on the suffering of mustard gas survivors. The exhibition marks the first solo show by photographer Shilan Malik, drawing attention to a 38-year-old wound in the Kurdish collective memory, and reviving the tragedy of the 1987 chemical bombardment of Sardasht, hosted at the Jowan Cinema in Mahabad.

The exhibition features 21 documentary photographs, open to the public from November 8 to 12. Shilan Malik, who studied photography at the University of Tehran, created this series as part of her graduation project, aiming to bring visibility to this long-forgotten wound.

Speaking about her motivation, she said:

“In Tehran, I noticed that people didn’t even know of cities like Mahabad, where I come from. So I decided to highlight the history of my people in places like Sardasht — which was even more obscure. I wanted to make others aware of the pain caused by chemical attacks, even if only a few people came to see it. For me, this was a step toward raising awareness about our history. After 38 years, no one pays attention to this wound anymore, and that’s what drove me to hold the exhibition here in particular.”

After more than six months of preparing the photographs and gathering the stories, Shilan Malik explained that the number of photos and accounts she documented exceeded what is currently on display. However, she faced challenges in presenting some works — especially those featuring women:

“Women who bear scars and burns on their bodies often refused to appear before the camera. Some images, such as the visible wound on a woman’s chest, simply couldn’t be shown.”

She described her style as purely documentary, with no retouching or alteration, noting that her choice of black and white was meant to emphasize the profound emotions within each frame — particularly the feelings of sorrow and suffering.

Each of the 21 photographs in this exhibition tells a painful story that began on July 7, 1987, when Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath regime ordered the chemical bombing of four crowded sites in the city of Sardasht, killing 119 people and injuring over 8,000 others with toxic gases. Many survivors still suffer today from the lingering effects of mustard gas — keeping this atrocity among the most haunting crimes against humanity