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Iran urged to free top actor who backed protests

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Stuart Williams, Agence France-Presse

Celebrities and rights groups called on Iran on Sunday to free actor Taraneh Alidoosti, one of the most prominent figures yet arrested in its three-month crackdown on protests.Alidoosti, 38, was arrested on Saturday, official media said, after making a string of social media posts supporting the protest movement including removing her headscarf and condemning the execution of protesters.The unrest was sparked by the September 16 death in custody of Mahsa Amini, 22, whom the morality police accused of violating the Islamic republic&#x27;s strict dress code for women.Iran blames the United States and other &quot;enemies&quot; for trying to destabilise the country by fuelling the demonstrations.Other Iranian actors and prominent figures including footballers have been detained in connection with the protests.Alidoosti has considerable international renown, performing in award-winning films by director Asghar Farhadi, including the Oscar-winning 2016 film &quot;The Salesman&quot;.She attended this year&#x27;s Cannes Film Festival to promote the movie &quot;Leila&#x27;s Brothers&quot; in which she starred.Fellow actor Golshifteh Farahani, calling her &quot;the brave actress of Iran&quot;, noted her arrest in a post on Instagram with a photo of her and Alidoosti together and the Persian hashtag &quot;free Taraneh Alidoosti&quot;.Farahani now lives in exile after falling out with the authorities.Cameron Bailey, head of the Toronto International Film Festival, called Alidoosti &quot;one of Iran&#x27;s most talented and acclaimed actors&quot;.&quot;I hope she&#x27;s free to keep representing the strength of Iranian cinema soon&quot;, Bailey wrote on Twitter.Nazanin Boniadi, a prominent British actor of Iranian origin, also backed Alidoosti on social media, saying she had been arrested for &quot;posting a photo of herself without compulsory hijab in solidarity with the protestors.&quot;- &#x27;Power of women&#x27;s voices&#x27; - Authorities in Tehran on Sunday also questioned pop singer Amir Maghare.The judiciary&#x27;s Mizan Online news website said the 26-year-old had &quot;left the prosecutor&#x27;s office after providing explanations, receiving a warning and making a commitment&quot;.Daily sports newspaper Khabar Varzeshi reported Sunday that Ashkan Dejagah, 36, a former Iran national football player who also has German citizenship, has been barred from leaving the country &quot;after being seen in protests... in Germany&quot;.Dejagah, 36, joined Iranian club Foolad earlier this year after a career in Britain and Germany.Iran last month arrested two other prominent actors, Hengameh Ghaziani and Katayoun Riahi, who expressed solidarity with the protest movement and removed their headscarves in public. Both have now been released on bail.Ghaziani was among a group of actors who gathered outside Evin prison in support of Alidoosti, the reformist newspaper Shargh reported.The group also included film star Mitra Hajjar, whose arrest Shargh had reported on December 3.The New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran said women including Alidoosti &quot;are being arrested and jailed in Iran for refusing to wear forced hijabs&quot;.&quot;The power of women&#x27;s voices terrify the Islamic republic&#x27;s ruler&quot;, it added.<div>- &#x27;Any price&#x27; -</div>During the street protests, banners of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have been set alight, women have openly walked down streets without headscarves, and demonstrators have at times sought to challenge the security forces.Alidoosti&#x27;s most recent social media post was on December 8, the same day Mohsen Shekari, 23, became the first person executed by authorities over the protests.&quot;Your silence means the support of the oppression and the oppressor&quot;, read a post on her Instagram account.On November 9, she posted an image of herself without a headscarf, holding a paper with the main slogan of the protests: &quot;Woman, life, freedom&quot;.Images have also circulated on social media of Alidoosti shopping in Tehran without a headscarf.She had vowed not to leave Iran and said she was prepared to &quot;pay any price to stand up for my rights.&quot;Mizan Online said the actor was arrested &quot;by order of the judicial authority&quot; as she &quot;did not provide documentation for some of her claims&quot; about the protests.Her Instagram account with more than eight million followers was no longer accessible on Sunday.The Oslo-based monitor Iran Human Rights said Saturday Iran&#x27;s security forces had killed at least 469 people in the protests.Iran&#x27;s top security body, the Supreme National Security Council, on December 3 gave a toll of more than 200 people killed in the street violence, including security personnel.Iranian authorities have arrested at least 14,000 people, according to the United Nations.© Agence France-Presse

Celebrities and rights groups called on Iran on Sunday to free actor Taraneh Alidoosti, a prominent figure yet arrested in a crackdown on protests.

Iran urged to free top actor who backed protests

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Iran urged to free top actor who backed protests

Stuart Williams,

Agence France-Presse

Published December 18, 2022 11:07 PM PHT

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Taraneh Alidoosti

Iran protests

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