You could even die for not being a real couple

Love is, I suppose, a common sentiment but the way to live it is socially different and profoundly political. The Kurdish people are one of the biggest populations without any territory who fight actively for its self-determination. They are known for their egalitarian gender position. In that context how do they envisage love? How does their territory marked by conservatism deal with their fight against patriarchy seen as the fathers’ power?

As I was travelling with a sort of ‘friend with benefits’, we were questioned about our relationship. Were we a brother and a sister? Why weren’t we married? We started performing the icon of a free couple and the Western fantasy people saw in us. We even felt in love; or were we forced to?

This absurd tale tells the encounter between young libertarian Kurds and our Western vision of love. It is a pro-choice feminism manifesto. Cause finally, who knows what real love is?

Laura Lafon (1989) is a French photographer who lives between Paris and Brussels. This year she has self-published the photobook about love in Kurdistan.