Iranian queer-feminist photographer Tara Inanloo has been granted asylum in the UK as a political refugee, her facebook support page has announced. Inanloo, 21, believed she would be executed if forced to return home due to the nature of her work.

The artist arrived in the UK in 2008 to study photography at Nottingham Trent University. Inspired by the work of Cindy Sherman, Inanloo began her own series of self-portraits under the title Illegal Images, in which she took on various disguises. In the series she appears as an innocent; an intellectual; a wag; a whore and a bluestocking, among other guises. In some, she appears nude.

She explained her work in an interview with The Guardian earlier this year. “Disguising is what Iranians grow up with. Disguising is the most important part of my life. I grew up drowning in lies and dishonesty. It is not easy to grow up pretending to be a non-existent creature. You always have to lie. But I have always tried to be an outlaw and cross the boundaries.”

On her website, she invites spectators to gaze at the prohibited body of an Iranian woman.

Inanloo began to fear for her safety after the secret police arrived at her father’s house in Iran with a file of her images. A feminist collector of her work was later arrested, prompting the asylum claim.

Supporters now report that the UK Border Agency immediately decided to accept the grounds of political asylum based on the strength of a first interview and supporting legal documents proving the threat to her wellbeing if returned.

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