The Children of Varamin by Soheil Behroozi

To live in Varamin, Iran, enveloped by immensely polluted air, is to literally live in the midst of furnaces of fire. The poor and unemployed from different cities come to Varamin to work under horrendous working conditions inside the furnaces to make bricks. There are more than 40 of these brick kilns in the city, and in the past two years those desperate for work have immigrated to Varamin with their families to work in the kilns. Half of the workforce in furnaces are children and adolescents. Sixty four percent of the children are Afghan refugees. Pollution is more severe in these areas, as the dozens of furnaces burn in the city simultaneously. Many of the adult workers complain that their children are suffering from exposure to the pollution created in the furnaces. Despite these problems, the people all work and continue to live there. The majority of these Afghan children have lost their parents to war; killed or maimed from missile strikes. These children work in the brick kilns 11 hours a day, and they have to transport the clay bricks as well. Their walk is a distance of 7 kilometers, and they carry their bricks under the scorching sun in rugged terrain. These children rely on bread, potatoes and peas to sustain themselves to complete the extremely strenuous workload they endure day after day. These are the children of Varamin.

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