Film star defies ayatollahs with hijab protest
An actress has become the latest Iranian celebrity to show public support for anti-regime protests, posting a photograph of herself online without a headscarf and holding a banner with a slogan calling for ‘‘freedom’’.
Taraneh Alidoosti, 38, had a long previous record of criticising the clerical regime, but stated publicly that she would not leave the country, as many other celebrities have done.
While a number of sportswomen who have been photographed without a hijab have apologised and claimed it was an accident, Alidoosti leaves no doubt in her post on Instagram, staring full face at the camera with her long hair let down.
She holds a poster saying Jin, Jiyan, Azadi or Women, Life, Freedom, written in Kurdish. Mahsa Amini, 22, whose death in custody after being arrested for not wearing the hijab properly led to the present wave of protests, was an ethnic Kurd.
In the comments field, Alidoosti added a line from a poem: ‘‘Your final absence, the migration of singing birds, is not the end of this rebellion.’’
The first comment in support came from Golshifteh Farahani, 39, Iran’s most famous actress in exile, star of the Leonardo DiCaprio film Body of Lies, who now lives in France.
Alidoosti herself is best known for appearing in the 2016 film The Salesman, which won the Oscar for best foreign-language film.
Since Amini’s death, football stars and television personalities have joined in public protests, which have now spread into widespread calls for the overthrow of the regime.
Ali Karimi, a former captain of the Iranian football team, has had an arrest warrant issued against him, and is staying in exile in Dubai. Ali Daei, an even bigger star and former national coach, is staying put but has come under heavy pressure from the regime to stop making public statements in support of the demonstrations.
Water polo players, an ice skater and a beach footballer were among others staging what appeared to be calculated acts of defiance this week.
Alidoosti, whose father was also a former national team football player, wrote a post saying she would not leave the country. ‘‘I will stay, I will halt working. I will stand by the families of prisoners and those killed. I will be their advocate,’’ she said.
‘‘I will fight for my home. I will pay any price to stand up for my rights, and most importantly, I believe in what we are building together today.’’
The regime has responded fiercely to the protests. More than 200 people have been killed as the Baseej, the plain-clothes domestic security arm of the Revolutionary Guard, have repeatedly cracked down on demonstrations, and tens of thousands of people have been arrested. Parliament has demanded the execution of those leading the protests for ‘‘offences against God’’.
However, the violence has continued. Reformist voices in the regime, who have been sidelined in recent years as the hardline faction seized all the main levers of power under the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have broken ranks to call for a referendum on its future.
The Iranian Reform Front, which is affiliated to former president Mohammad Khatami, said that referendums would allow an ‘‘effective national dialogue’’. However, there appears to be little middle ground. The regime refuses to give way and some protesters are chanting: ‘‘We don’t want a referendum, we want regime change.’’
Many reformists are seen as wanting to save the regime rather than change it.
‘‘A referendum under this regime is nothing but a ploy and diversion by the so-called reformists,’’ Fariborz Karimazand, a police official who defected abroad, said.