Iranian actor detained for supporting anti-government protests released from jail

Iran releases famous actor from jail almost three weeks after he was arrested for criticizing a crackdown on anti-government protests, local reports said.

Iran’s semi-official ISNA news agency said Taraneh Alidoosti, the 38-year-old star of Asghar Farhadi’s 2016 Oscar-winning film, The Salesman, released on bail. His mother, Nadere Hakimelahi, previously said it would be released in a post on Instagram.

After being released from Evin prison in Tehran on Wednesday, Alidoosti posed with flowers, surrounded by friends. There are no further details about her case.

Alidoosti is one of many Iranian celebrities who have expressed support for the nationwide protests and criticized the authorities’ crackdown on dissent. He had posted at least three messages in support of the protest on Instagram before his account was deactivated.

One message has expressed solidarity with the first person to be executed on charges linked to the protests, which were sparked by the death of a woman in police custody and have sparked widespread calls to oust Iran’s ruling cleric.

The protests are one of the biggest challenges for the Islamic Republic since it was founded after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Security forces used live ammunition, birdshot, tear gas and batons to disperse protesters, according to rights groups.

Mohsen Shekari was executed on December 9 after being charged by an Iranian court with blocking a road in Tehran and attacking members of the country’s security forces with a machete.

A week later, Iran executed a second prisoner, Majidreza Rahnavard, by public hanging. He is accused of stabbing two members of the paramilitary Basij militia, which led the crackdown.

Activists say at least a dozen people have been sentenced to death in closed-door trials on charges related to the protests.

“His name is Mohsen Shekari,” Alidoosti wrote on an account with about eight million followers before his arrest. “Every international organization that watches this bloodshed and does not act is a disgrace to humanity.”

At least 516 protesters were killed, activists said

The Iranian report on Alidoosti’s release did not say whether he had been charged with anything or would face trial. It is also unclear whether he faces a travel ban as part of his release conditions.

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 closely monitors the unrest. Iranian authorities have not given an official number of those killed or detained.

Hengameh Ghaziani and Katayoun Riahi, two prominent Iranian actors, were arrested in November for expressing solidarity with the protesters on social media. Voria Ghafouri, an Iranian soccer star, was also arrested that month for “insulting the national soccer team and dissing the government.” All three have been released.

The protests began in mid-September, when 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died after being arrested by Iran’s morality police for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code. Women played a leading role in the protests, with many revealing the Islamic obligatory headscarf, known as the hijab.

The protesters said they were tired after decades of political and social oppression. One of the main slogans is “Death to dictators,” referring to Iran’s 83-year-old supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has held the country’s highest office for more than three decades.

Iranian officials blamed the protests on the US and other foreign powers. State-affiliated media have highlighted attacks on security forces, while authorities have imposed heavy restrictions on coverage of demonstrations, including periodically cutting off internet access.

Khamenei, who has said little about the protests, spoke about Islamic dress on Wednesday in a meeting with women, saying that the hijab is necessary but that those who do not “completely observe” the practice “will not be accused of being irreligious or against the revolution. “

Even before the protests, many Iranian women wore the hijab loosely, and the authorities sometimes made it easy to enforce it, especially under president Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate who ruled from 2013 to 2021. His successor, Ebrahim Raisi, is hardline. has been moved to tighten restrictions.

Alidoosti has previously criticized the Iranian government and police force before this year’s protests.

In June 2020, she was given a five-month suspended prison sentence after she criticized police on Twitter in 2018 for assaulting a woman who removed her hijab.

At The Salesman, she plays a woman whose relationship with her husband breaks up after she is sexually assaulted in their apartment. The story unfolds against the backdrop of a local staging of Arthur Miller’s classic play, Death of a Salesmanwhere women and their husbands are the main characters.

Other famous films Alidoosti has starred in include Beautiful City and About Elly.