Islamist regime
Iran: Actresses take off headscarves – and are banned from working
Iran, January 2023: Taraneh Alidoosti is released from prison on “parole” and greeted with flowers by fans
© Gisoo Faghfoori/ / Picture Alliance
The Iranian actress Taraneh Alidoosti and eleven other actresses have been banned from working. The reason for this is that they appeared in public without the headscarf – which is mandatory in Iran.
Twelve Iranian actresses have been banned from their careers for appearing in public without wearing headscarves, which are mandatory in Iran. “Those who do not respect the law are not allowed to work,” said Minister of Culture and Islamic Orientation Mohammad Mehdi Esmaeili in Tehran on Wednesday. According to information from the Hamshahri newspaper, the affected actresses include 39-year-old Taraneh Alidoosti, who is one of the best-known actresses still living in Iran.
After a photo without a headscarf: prison sentence for Alidoosti
She has appeared in several internationally award-winning films, including Asghar Farhadi’s “The Salesman”, which won an Oscar for best foreign language film in 2017. Alidoosti had a photo of herself without one during the protests following the death of the young Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini Headscarf published online and the slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom” written underneath. This had already earned her a prison sentence of several weeks at the end of 2022.
Mahsa Amini died in September 2022 after being arrested by the moral police for allegedly wearing a headscarf improperly. Her death sparked weeks of protests against the Iranian leadership. Hundreds of people, including security forces, were killed and thousands were arrested.