Zurkhane

• Prize
  Silver in Editorial/sports
• Photographer
  Jordi Cohen

Zurkhaneh is a traditional Iranian system of athletics originally used to train warriors. It combines martial arts, strength training and music. Recognized by UNESCO as among the world's longest-running forms of such training, it fuses elements of pre-Islamic Persian culture (particularly Zoroastrianism, Mithraism and Gnosticism) with the spirituality of Shia Islam and Sufism. Practiced in a domed structure called the zurkhaneh, training sessions consist mainly of ritual gymnastic movements and climax with the core of combat practice, a form of submission-grappling called koshti pahlevani.

Jordi Cohen is a free-lance documentary photographer based in Barcelona. His work has been published in the New York Times, The Guardian, Der Spiegel, National Geographic, Mirror, Sunday Telegraph, CNN Blog, Leica Magazine, La Vanguardia, El Periódico, Photo France, XL Semanal and Piel de Foto among others.Has exhibited in Europe and America, to highlight San Diego Art Institute, CEH “Manege” St. Petersburg, Royal Geographical Society of London, Gallería Hector Garcia of Mexico City, International Festival of Social Photography in Sarcelles (France) and Couvent des Minimes of Perpignan.