Girl smelling a rose in Tehran. The last photo of the exhibition “And They Laughed At Me” is of an adolescent girl smelling a rose. This photo is repeated throughout the exhibition but each time it is changed. What Tavakolian does to this photo, by bleaching and scratching parts of it out, destroying the rose and effacing the young woman who represents Tavakolian herself, is mercilessly violent. In a final act of demolition, she tears the photograph to pieces but then glues it back together again. This photograph was taken at the height of the reform movement in Iran at a presidential election rally. The organisers were handing roses to the young audience as a symbol of hope but that hope seems to have wilted now.

Djevojka miriše ružu u Teheranu. Fotografija iz ciklusa i izložbe “A smijali su mi se” prikazuje mladu djevojku koja miriše ružu. Ona se ponavlja kroz izložbu, ali svaki put na drugačiji način. Nemilosrdno nasilno je to što Tavakolian radi s ovom fotografijom, izbjeljivanjem i grebanjem njenih dijelova, uništavanjem ruže i brisanjem mlade žene koja predstavlja samu Tavakolian. U konačnom činu uništavanja, ona trga fotografiju na komade, pa je potom ponovo lijepi. Ova je fotografija snimljena na predizbornom skupu na vrhuncu reformskog pokreta u Iranu. Organizatori su tada dijelili ruže mladoj publici kao simbol nade, no sad se čini da je ta nada uvenula.