The Kahur Does Not Fall Unless the Earth Wills It

If Hashem Shakeri’s recent and ongoing series of photographs were a novel, its main characters would be a short-snouted crocodile and a resplendent kahur tree. Both are native to the wetlands of Balochistan, a region pounded by drought, covering the far southeast of Iran as well as southern and western portions of Afghanistan and Pakistan, respectively. Both carry heavy meaning for the people who live there.

The kahur, which grows in dry, salty soil and is able to thrive with minimal water, embodies the resilience and endurance necessary to withstand a climate of extreme heat, pervasive aridity, and brutal seasonal winds. The crocodile, known locally as gando, symbolizes life, blessings, and survival. The presence of healthy gandos is taken for a sign that water is plentiful. If gandos die or disappear, it is considered a bad omen, a warning “that the land has become thirsty,” said Shakeri. Local residents consider gandos sacred. Some go to great lengths to care for the gandos and ensure their livelihood. Others are justifiably afraid. “A few years ago, I met Hawa, a ten-year-old girl who had gone to fetch water for her mother when a gando attacked her and tore off her right hand,” Shakeri said.

The gando and the kahur face each other with sly majesty in a pair of images from Shakeri’s series The Kahur Does Not Fall Unless the Earth Wills It (2018–ongoing). The crocodile, which lives in rivers and ponds and finds refuge in deep pits when water is scarce, is half submerged in an eerie green pool edged with tall grasses. The kahur, set against a sun-blasted landscape, is rendered in a vivid, electrifying red. A man in dramatic silhouette stands on its low branches. The red was initially a glitch that appeared on Shakeri’s screen while he was at home in Tehran, scanning negatives.

This was during the 2022 Women, Life, Freedom uprising in Iran. “The people of Balochistan, especially in Zahedan, the provincial capital, joined the movement with remarkable persistence,” Shakeri explained. “Every Friday, under the pretext of Friday prayers, they gathered to protest against injustice and oppression.” During the first demonstration, Iranian security forces opened fire on the crowd, killing at least ninety-six people. The crackdown intensified, and protests across the country waned. But not in Balochistan. For Shakeri, the man in the kahur tree represents “the stubborn will to live under the most unforgiving conditions,” and Balochistan itself, “parched and wounded, yet unyielding.”

Kaelen Wilson-Goldie