Iran has arrested two prominent actors who expressed solidarity with the protest movement and publicly removed their headscarves in an act of defiance against the regime, Iranian state media reported on Sunday.
Hengameh Ghaziani and Katayoun Riahi were both detained after being summoned by prosecutors in a probe into their “provocative” social media posts and media activity, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) said.
Iran’s clerical leadership has been shaken by more than three months of women-led demonstrations sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman of Kurdish origin who had been arrested by the morality police in Tehran.
Photo: AFP
Authorities in the Islamic republic describe the protests as “riots” and accuse the country’s Western foes of fomenting them.
Ghaziani, a vocal critic of the crackdown on protesters, was arrested for inciting and supporting the “riots” and for communicating with opposition media, IRNA said.
The 52-year-old film star had already indicated she had been summoned by the Iranian judiciary, and published a video on Instagram of herself removing the obligatory hijab.
“Maybe this will be my last post,” she wrote on Saturday.
“From this moment on, whatever happens to me, know that as always, I am with the Iranian people until my last breath,” she wrote.
The video, which appears to have been filmed in a shopping street, shows Ghaziani bareheaded facing the camera without speaking and then turning around and binding her hair into a ponytail.
In a post last week, she accused the “child-killer” Iranian government of “murdering” more than 50 children.
Riahi was later arrested in the same probe, IRNA said.
The actor, 60, who has appeared in a string of award-winning movies and is known for her charitable work, had in September given an interview to London-based Iran International TV, an outlet despised by the regime, without wearing a hijab.
She expressed solidarity with the protests that have swept Iran since the death of Mahsa Amini, as well as opposition to the obligatory hijab.
According to the judiciary’s Mizan Online news Web site, Ghaziani was among eight people who were summoned by prosecutors over “provocative” material posted on social media.
They also included Yahya Golmohammadi, coach of Tehran’s soccer team Persepolis FC, who had strongly criticized players on the national squad for not “bringing the voice of oppressed people to the ears of the authorities.”
The comment came after Iran’s national soccer team last week met Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi ahead of their appearance at the World Cup, which began on Sunday in Qatar.
Mizan said other prominent actors, including Mitra Hajjar and Baran Kosari, had also been summoned.
Earlier this month, Taraneh Alidoosti, one of Iran’s best-known actors remaining in the country, posted an image of herself on social media without the mandatory headscarf.
Alidoosti vowed to stay in her homeland at “any price,” saying she planned to stop working, and would support the families of those killed or arrested in the protest crackdown.
Iranian cinema figures were under pressure even before the start of the protest movement sparked by Amini’s death.
Prize-winning directors Mohammad Rasoulof and Jafar Panahi remain in detention after they were arrested earlier this year.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS