The arrest of actress Taraneh Alidoosti: calls for her release

Appeals from celebrities and civil rights groups are multiplying asking for the actress’s release Taraneh Alidoostione of the most prominent figures ever arrested during a three-month crackdown on anti-government protests in Iran.

Taraneh Alidoosti she was arrested yesterday after the search of his home: yes it was publicly expressed on social media in favor of the protesters and criticizing the regime.

The 38-year-old Tehran native has considerable fame not only at home but also abroad, thanks to her performances in director Asghar Farhadi’s award-winning films, including the Academy Award-winning ‘The Client’.

“This brave Iranian actress has been arrested,” her colleague wrote on Instagram Golshifteh Farahanialso an actress and activist, who emigrated abroad for years due to problems with the authorities.

“Taraneh Alidoosti is one of Iran’s most talented and acclaimed actresses… I hope she is free to continue representing the strength of Iranian cinema soon,” he tweeted Cameron Baileyhead of the Toronto International Film Festival.

Even the famous British actress of Iranian origin, Nazanin Bonyadi, spoke on social media in support of Alidoosti, denouncing that her colleague was arrested for “posting a photo of her without the mandatory hijab in solidarity with the protesters”.

The appeals were joined by the Iranian actress and director, Niki Karimi. On Instagram you wrote in support of Alidoosti’s release, in a long post in which you invited his generation – the one after the Islamic Revolution – to overcome “institutionalized fears”. “Enough, we are tired and now we return to life,” wrote the artist using the names of Alidoosti and the arrested directors Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof as a hashtag.

Last month, Iran had already arrested two actresses: Hengameh Ghaziani and Katayoun Riahi, who had expressed solidarity with the protest movement by taking off their veils in public. Both have now been released on bail. In November, the actress also ended up in prison Soheila Golestani and director Hamid Pourazari, after they had appeared in a video in which a group of film and theater characters stare at the camera in silence and without a veil; they too were released.

Protests in Iran were sparked by the Sept. 16 death of Mahsa Aminia 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman who died after being arrested in Tehran by the morality police on charges of violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code.

Since then, hundreds have been killed, thousands arrested. Numerous artists such as Amir Maghareh, singer of the pop group Makanband, “summoned by the Evin prosecutor’s office in Tehran” “to provide explanations” are also in the grips of the government.

Taraneh Alidoosti is well known in Iran. TOactress since her teens, she also acted in Saeed Roustayi’s film “Leila and her brothers”, presented this year at the Cannes Film Festival.

“Women are being arrested and imprisoned in Iran for refusing to wear the mandatory hijab, including famous actresses like Taraneh Alidoosti. The power of women’s voice terrifies the leaders of the Islamic Republic,” said the Center for Human Rights in Iran ( CHRI), based in New York.

The actress had in particular denounced the hanging of Mohsen Shekari on December 8: “a disgrace to humanity”, she wrote on her Instagram page, followed by more than eight million people and which is no longer accessible.

In November he promised to stay in his country, to “pay the price” of what it would take to defend his rights and to stop working to support the families of those killed or arrested during the protests.