Following the arrest of internationally renowned actress Taraneh Alidoosti in Iran, celebrities and human rights activists called on Iran on Sunday to release the 38-year-old. She is one of Iran’s most talented and well-known actresses, Toronto International Film Festival head Cameron Bailey said on Twitter. “I hope she will soon be free to continue representing the power of Iranian cinema.”
Alidoosti spread “false and distorted” information and “lead to chaos,” the pro-government news agency Tasnim reported on Saturday. She was arrested by order of the judiciary for failing to provide “documentation for some of her allegations” about the protests, Misan Online, the judiciary’s official website, reported Saturday.
Alidoosti showed solidarity with the protest movement
In addition to Alidoosti, other “celebrities” were also questioned or arrested for “unfounded allegations about recent events and the publication of provocative material in support of the street unrest,” the portal said.
Instagram profile disappeared
Alidoosti had repeatedly claimed responsibility on the online networks for the protest movement that arose after the death of young Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in September in the custody of the vice squad. Last month, she posted on her Instagram page a picture of herself without a headscarf, which is mandatory in Iran, for which she was praised at home and abroad but put her career on the line. She also recently denounced the execution of young protester Mohsen Shekari.
“Any international organization watching this massacre and not responding is a disgrace to humanity,” the actress wrote on Instagram about the execution. On Sunday, her profile, which has more than eight million followers on the platform, was no longer accessible.
Arrested in front of daughter
According to her colleagues, unknown persons broke into Alidoosti’s house on Saturday afternoon, seized the laptop and other documents and arrested the actress in the presence of her daughter. Since then, her father, former football player Hamid Alidoosti, has been trying to find out which authority issued the arrest warrant, who exactly arrested her and where she is being held. According to online reports, she was held in the notorious Ewin Prison in northern Tehran on Sunday.
Colleagues of Alidoosti expressed their surprise at how the system could deal so harshly with the country’s most famous actress, artists’ circles said on Sunday. With Alidoosti’s arrest, there was a wave of solidarity at home and abroad. According to online reports, Iranian artists in exile have called on numerous international film festival organizers to condemn the arrest.
Call for boycott film festival
Iran’s domestic film elite and cinema fans are apparently planning to boycott Tehran’s upcoming Fajr film festival. Culture Minister Mohammed-Mehdi Esmaeili recently said the festival would take place as planned in February and on the 43rd anniversary of the Islamic revolution, regardless of the unrest.
Even before the current wave of protests erupted, several prominent representatives of Iran’s film industry had been arrested this year, including internationally acclaimed directors Mohammed Rasulof and Jafar Panahi, who remain behind bars.
British actress with Iranian roots, Nazanin Boniadi, also expressed her support for Alidoosti in online networks. She was arrested for “publishing a photo of herself without the compulsory hijab in solidarity with the protesters”.
Women in Iran are being arrested and imprisoned for refusing to wear the “compulsory hijab,” the New York-based human rights organization Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said. Among them is the actress Alidoosti. “The power of women’s voices terrifies those in power in the Islamic Republic,” it said.
Alidoosti’s best-known films include the dramas The Salesman and All About Elly, both directed by two-time Academy Award winner Asghar Farhadi. This year she celebrated the premiere of her latest film “Leila’s Brothers” at the Cannes Film Festival. Public screenings of the film in Iranian cinemas have been banned by the Ministry of Culture.
Iran threatens to block Instagram and WhatsApp
At the same time, Iran threatened over the weekend with a permanent ban on the country’s very popular WhatsApp and Instagram apps. The American internet company Meta has not yet responded to a letter from the Iranian authorities in early December calling on the company to open a representative office in the country and to align its guidelines with those of the Islamic Republic. “If Meta does not respond to our letter, this could be the prologue to a permanent ban,” Cyber Center boss Abolhassan Firusabadi said in a newspaper interview Saturday.
Source: Krone
I am Wallace Jones, an experienced journalist. I specialize in writing for the world section of Today Times Live. With over a decade of experience, I have developed an eye for detail when it comes to reporting on local and global stories. My passion lies in uncovering the truth through my investigative skills and creating thought-provoking content that resonates with readers worldwide.
