Throughout the 1970s and ‘80s, Reza worked for Agence France Presse, served as Tehran correspondent for Newsweek, and was the Middle East correspondent for Time. In 1989-1990, Reza served as a consultant to the United Nations in Afghanistan, helping to distribute food to populations in war-torn parts of the country. At that time, he began photographing for UNICEF and going on assignment for National Geographic magazine, for which he has shot such articles as Abraham: Journey of Faith and Tracking the Ghost of bin Laden in the Land of the Pashtun. In the years since, he has also photographed for Figaro, Vanity Fair, and the New York Times Magazine.

Reza made his way to Qatar in December as part of the 2012 World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) to present an exhibition of 80 selected photographs that portray the hurts and  the joys of those whom Reza had encountered in Asia, Africa, Middle East and Europe during his 30-year career. The exhibition, entitled HOPE, stood at the Sheraton Park on the Corniche of Doha from November 7 to December 15, 2012, attracting more than 25,000 people. Reza also held  an exclusive workshop and a reading of portfolios with the Qatar Photographic Society. Three of the 80 photographs, presented in the HOPE exhibition, are  included in the latest WISE Book, Learning a Living: Radical Innovation in Education for Work, which examines the relationship between education and  the world  of work.

Reza uses photography as a tool to educate, telling stories of the victims of conflict to international audiences in the eyes of the victims themselves. A promoter of citizen journalism, in 1983, Reza initiated photographic training programs in Pakistani refugee camps. This was the beginning of his personal voluntary involvement, leading him to establish the NGO, Aina in 2001.

“I started a foundation in Kabul but it extend to Sri Lanka, Uganda and many other countries, training mainly women to become media persons; training women in photography, video, radio and everything to help them become the peace bringer in their countries,” says Reza. Aina, Persian for ‘the mirror’, is an international non-profit organization dedicated to educating and  empowering Afghan women and  children by providing educational opportunities in the field of communications and multimedia. Also in 2001, along with Aina, Reza founded Aghan Media and Culture Center to bring free press in a Taliban- oppressed country.

“Children’s education is also important,” says Reza. “Much of my work goes into creating magazines and books for kids in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.” By offering educational opportunities in the field of communications and  multimedia, Aina, Afghan Media and Culture Center have provided not only women but also children story-telling skills. “We trained refugee children to tell the story of refugee camps. You always read about refugee camps but we always  have  the same white male  or female photographers, taking pictures and showing them to the world. But who can tell their stories better than the children in the refugee camps themselves,” says Reza.

Reza shares a story of a 16-year-old African refugee girl who was raped and later became pregnant with a baby of rape. As a result, she was shunned from society. When she heard of Reza’s Aina program, she tried to join but her classmates didn’t want her in the class. However, Reza threatened to cancel the program if they didn’t accept her, so they did. Soon after, “she became the  best  photographer between all of them,” he says. “She has now become very popular because she’s a good photographer, and she’s making a living out of it. She’s photographing people, weddings and other ceremonies. Now, she has a job and everybody accepts her.”

Through Aina, Reza empowers women who are victims of rape, war and poverty to tell their own stories instead of having parachute journalists – who are  mainly  men – tell the stories. “For many years, every journalist that comes [to Afghanistan] is a man and what they do is interview and  photograph men,” says Reza. “So the whole  world  sees  just 50% of the reality of the crisis. What happened to the other 50%? What happened to the Afghani women? They are the ones left behind in wars. Who tells  their stories?” Reza asks rhetorically. “Themselves,” he answers.

Discussing Aina, Reza says, “We need a new type of humanitarian organization. We need an organization that could help people to be- come storytellers themselves. A lot of things come  from  what I believe in, that we really need to educate children for a peaceful world. We should start from now. Peace education is something we should start doing from the very early ages,” he says. To Reza, education is not building schools  because, in the  case  of Af- ghanistan, schools  will be targeted by insurgents, resulting in the killing of teachers and students. “Let’s bring education to the home,” he says.

Reza discovered his talent and passion for photography in 1968, at the age of 14. Three years later, the self-taught photographer joined the University of Tehran where he received a degree in architecture. “I was working as an architect and  putting the money aside buying cameras and films but I had no time to go and take  pictures so it was quite  schizophrenic-like for me,” he says. “I had love and passion for photography but I could not do it.” In 1979, however, Reza was in Iran meet- ing  with an  architect when the protests against Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi broke out. Witnessing a major  historic moment that caused Pahlevi to flee Iran – in a moment of epiphany – Reza dropped his career in architecture to follow  one  in photography.

The cover of Reza’s War and Peace book