DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran released a leading actress in an Oscar-winning film on Wednesday, nearly three weeks after she was jailed for criticizing a crackdown on anti-government protests, according to local reports.
Iran’s semi-official ISNA news agency said Taraneh Alidoosti, the 38-year-old star of Asghar Farhadi 2016 Oscar-winning film, “The Traveling Salesman” was released on bail. Her mother, Nadere Hakimelahi, had earlier announced that she would be released in an Instagram post.
After his release on Wednesday from Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, Alidoosti posed with bouquets of flowers, surrounded by friends. No other details have been released about his case.
Alidoosti was among several Iranian celebrities to voice support for nationwide protests and criticize the authorities’ violent crackdown on dissent. She had posted at least three messages in support of the protests on Instagram before her account was deactivated.
A message had expressed its solidarity with the first man to be executed on charges related to the protests, which were sparked by the death of a woman in police custody and turned into widespread calls for the overthrow of Iran’s ruling clerics.
The protests mark one of the biggest challenges to the Islamic Republic since its establishment after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Security forces have used live ammunition, shotgun shells, tear gas and batons to disperse protesters, rights groups say.
Mohsen Shekari was executed on December 12. 9 after being accused by an Iranian court of blocking a street in Tehran and attacking a member of the country’s security forces with a machete. A week later, Iran executed a second prisoner, Majidreza Rahnavard, by public hanging. He had been accused of stabbing two members of the paramilitary Basij militia, who carries out the repression.
Activists say at least a dozen people have been sentenced to death in closed hearings on charges related to the protests.
“His name was Mohsen Shekari,” Alidoosti wrote on an account with some 8 million followers before his arrest. “Every international organization that observes this bloodbath and does not act is a disgrace to humanity.”
Iranian reports on Alidoosti’s release do not say whether she has been charged with anything or whether she will face trial. It was also unclear whether she faced any travel restrictions as part of the terms of her release.
At least 516 protesters have been killed and more than 19,000 people have been arrested, according to human rights activists in Iran, a group that has followed the unrest closely. Iranian authorities have not provided an official tally of those killed or detained.
Hengameh Ghaziani and Katayoun Riahi, two other famous Iranian actresses, were arrested in November for expressing solidarity with protesters on social media. Voria Ghafouri, an Iranian football star, was also arrested that month for “insulting the national football team and propaganda against the government”. All three were released.
The protests began in mid-September, when Mahsa Amini, 22, died after being arrested by Iranian morality police for allegedly breaking the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code. Women have played a prominent role in the protests, with many publicly removing the compulsory Islamic headscarf, known as the hijab.
Protesters say they are sated after decades of political and social repression. One of the main slogans has been “Death to the Dictator”, in reference to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 83, who has held the country’s highest office for more than three decades.
Iranian officials blame the protests on the United States and other foreign powers. State-linked media highlighted attacks on security forces, while authorities imposed heavy restrictions on coverage of the protests, including periodically cutting off internet access.
Khamenei, who has said little about the protests, discussed Islamic dress in a meeting with women on Wednesday, saying the hijab is necessary but those who ‘not fully observe’ the practice ‘should not be charged to be non-religious or against the revolution.
Even before the protests, many Iranian women wore the headscarf loosely, and authorities have occasionally loosened its enforcement, notably under President Hassan Rouhani, a relatively moderate who ruled from 2013 to 2021. His successor, the Pure and hard Ebrahim Raisi, had decided to tighten the restrictions.
Alidoosti had already criticized the Iranian government and its police forces ahead of this year’s protests.
In June 2020, she received a five-month suspended prison sentence after criticizing police on Twitter in 2018 for assaulting a woman who had her headscarf removed.
In “The Salesman”, she played a woman whose relationship with her husband breaks down after he is sexually assaulted in their apartment. The story is set against the backdrop of a local staging of Arthur Miller’s classic play, “Death of a Salesman”, in which the wife and her husband are the main characters.
Other well-known films by Alidoosti include “The Beautiful City” and “About Elly”.
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