Photo exhibit highlights Iranian victims of chemical warfare

TEHRAN,June 23(MNA) -- A collection of photos displaying the civilian victims of the Iraqi chemical attack on the Iranian town of Sardasht during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war was put on display in an exhibition at Qom’s Eshraq Cultural Center on Sunday. The exhibit has been organized to commemorate the 24th anniversary of the tragic event, which was occurred in the western Iranian town on June 28, 1987. This was the first time that Saddam Hussein had used such warfare against Iranian civilians. A quarter of Sardasht’s 20,000 population of that time are still suffering from severe illnesses as result of the attack. “This exhibition is an innovative work,” the photographer of the collection, Mehdi Monem, told on Sunday. “These photos depict the victims of the chemical attack, which affected the lives of the people in Sardasht and the surrounding villages afterwards,” he added. “These photos, in fact, represent their grief over the past 17 years,” he stated. Monem said that he has spent 14 years working on a collection, which contains photos of the civilian victims of the Iran-Iraq war. This collection has previously been published in a book entitled “War Victims”. “It was difficult for me to take photos of those who were infected by the chemical attack on Sardasht,” Monem said. The exhibition will run until July 5.