DUBAI: Taraneh Alidoosti, arguably Iran’s most popular star, was arrested at her home on Saturday and is reportedly being held at the infamous Evin prison in Tehran.
Before her Instagram account was shut down, she wrote: “I’ve inherited this courage from the women of my land, who for years have been living their lives, every day with resistance . . . I will stay, I will not quit, I will stand with the families of the prisoners and murdered and demand their rights.”
The Oscar-winning actress was arrested for her posts on Instagram, where she spoke out against the death penalty on protesters who have taken to the streets since the police murder of Mahsa Amini in September.
“The trials of those who are facing capital charges related to protests have been a total travesty of justice,” said Tara Sepehri Far, senior Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch.
“The defendants are reportedly tortured into confessing, deprived of access to lawyers of their choosing, and rushed through trial proceedings that bypass safeguards in Iran’s own penal code and criminal procedure law,” Far said.
The Iranian government has been cracking down on members of the film industry, barring some from leaving the country and arresting others.
Now, with Alidoosti’s arrest, the global film community is further outraged and calling on the government to release her.
An open letter, signed by prominent actors such as Kate Winslet and Emma Thompson, reads: “As members of the international arts community, we demand the immediate release of Academy Award-winning actress, mother and activist Taraneh Alidoosti, who was arrested on 17 December 2022 and has been taken into custody at Evin prison, Iran, where many other political prisoners also remain.”
It added: “The Iranian authorities have strategically chosen to arrest Taraneh before Christmas to ensure her international peers would be distracted. But we are not distracted. We are outraged.”
Film festivals such as the Cannes Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, The Berlinale, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, and the European Film Academy, among others, have expressed solidarity with the actress and demanded her release.
“We call on Iranian authorities to put an end to the arbitrary detentions. The Iranian people are being denied fundamental freedoms, among them expression and peaceful assembly,” said EFA chairman Mike Downey.
Oscar-winning Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi and Iranian actor Hamid Farrokhnezhad were among those who took to social media to express their solidarity with Alidoosti and outrage against the regime.
Farhadi, who has worked with Alidoosti on four films, said: “I stand with Taraneh and demand her release alongside that of my other fellow cineastes Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof and all the other less-known prisoners whose only crime is the attempt for a better life.”
Farrokhnezhad used his Instagram account with 2.7 million followers to send a message to Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.
He wrote: “You are the culprit for all the recent events, you are to blame for every blood that is spilled on the ground from both sides of the people and the security forces, you are to be blamed for all the financial injuries that are inflicted on the country, you are to blamed for the divergent gaze and the Pharaoh’s position that you have on yourself.”
At least 469 people, including 63 children and 32 women, have been killed by security forces in the current nationwide protests, and at least 39 protesters are currently at risk of execution or death penalty sentences, according to NGO Iran Human Rights.
“Not succeeding in quashing protests in the past three months, Islamic Republic leaders are trying to reign by fear through protester executions,” said director Mahmood Amiry Moghaddam.
