A well-known Iranian director and a prominent Iranian actor have openly criticized the government for cracking down on protests triggered by the September death of Mahsa Amini in police custody.
Iranian filmmaker Mani Haghighi expressed his criticism in a video message on December 19 addressed to Iran’s minister of Islamic guidance.
"You cannot keep someone's head under water and call his struggle to save his life 'disruption,'” Haghighi said in the video. "We are currently burying our loved ones; we don't have time to dance for you," the 53-year-old Iranian director added, referring to a request from the minister of Islamic guidance for artists to return to the stage.
Most artists have canceled performances as a show of support for protests sparked by the death of 22-year-old Amini. Security forces have met the demonstrators with brutal, and sometimes deadly force.
Meanwhile, Iranian actor Shahab Hosseini addressed the authorities of the Islamic republic in a newly released documentary, saying that if there was another way to express protest, no one would have taken to the streets.
"Who wants to give up his life and go out into the street and get beaten and shot and killed, just to defend his right?” Hosseini added.
Actor Shahab Hosseini (file photo)
Shahab Hosseini is one of Iran’s most prominent actors and the star of the Oscar-winning 2011 film A Separation, directed by Asghar Farhadi.
The criticisms come amid one of the deepest challenges to the Islamic regime since the revolution in 1979. The recent protests erupted following the September 16 death of Amini after she was detained for allegedly wearing her head scarf improperly.
Since the start of daily protests, several Iranian cinematographers and prominent public figures have been summoned by the police or arrested, including actress Taraneh Alidoosti and director Hamid Pourazari.
Several celebrities, including actor Hamid Farrokhnejad, have been interrogated and have had their passports confiscated after showing support for the protests.
One of the actors, Hossein Mohammadi, 26, faces a death sentence after he was reportedly tortured into making a confession to security forces who were looking to pin the blame on him and 15 others for the death of a member of the Basij paramilitary force during a demonstration.
The Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said Mohammadi was sentenced after a "show trial."
Hadi Ghaemi, the executive director of the CHRI, said the international community, including film industry members and institutions, should loudly condemn the Islamic republic’s use of death sentences and arbitrary imprisonment as tools of political repression.
“Artists in Iran have long been forced to navigate an environment rife with state censorship and arbitrary rules imposed on their freedom of expression, and now they’re being sentenced to death and thrown in jail for speaking out against injustice and repression,” Ghaemi said in a news release.
Mohammadi is among at least 11 men who have been sentenced to death in Iran without due process, according to the CHRI. Another 25 are facing charges that could carry the death penalty.
Two men, Mohsen Shekari and Majidreza Rahnavard, have already been executed in connection with the protests.
Since Amini's death, more than 400 people have been killed in the police crackdown, according to rights groups. Several thousand more have been arrested, including many protesters, as well as journalists, lawyers, activists, digital rights defenders, and others.