PARIS - Iran has arrested two prominent actresses who expressed solidarity with a protest movement and removed their headscarves in public in an apparent act of defiance against the regime.
Ms Hengameh Ghaziani and Ms 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 Irna news agency said on Sunday.
Iran’s clerical leadership has been shaken by more than two months of women-led demonstrations sparked by the death in custody of Ms Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman of Kurdish origin who had been arrested by the morality police in Teheran.
The authorities in the Islamic republic describe the protests as “riots” and accuse the country’s Western foes of fomenting them.
Ms 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 that she had been summoned by the judiciary, and then published a video on Instagram of herself removing the obligatory hijab.
“Maybe this will be my last post,” she wrote late on Saturday. “From this moment on, whatever happens to me, know that as always, I am with the Iranian people until my last breath.”
The video, which appears to have been filmed in a shopping street, shows a bareheaded Ms Ghaziani 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.
Ms Riahi was later arrested in the same probe, Irna said.
The actress, 60, who has appeared in a string of award-winning movies and is also 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 had expressed solidarity with the protests that have swept Iran since the death of Ms Amini, as well as opposition to the obligatory hijab.
According to the judiciary’s Mizan Online news website, Ms Ghaziani was among eight people who were summoned by prosecutors over “provocative” material posted on social media.
They also included coach of Teheran football team Persepolis FC Yahya Golmohammadi, who had strongly criticised players on Iran’s national squad for not “bringing the voice of oppressed people to the ears of the authorities”.
The comment came after the national football team last week met President Ebrahim Raisi ahead of their appearance at the World Cup, which began on Sunday in Qatar.
Mizan said other prominent actors, including Ms Mitra Hajjar and Ms Baran Kosarim, had also been summoned.
Earlier in November, Ms Taraneh Alidoosti, one of Iran’s best-known actresses remaining in the country, posted an image of herself on social media without the mandatory headscarf.
Ms Alidoosti vowed to stay in her homeland at “any price”, saying she planned to stop working and would instead 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 Ms Amini’s death.
Prize-winning directors Mohammad Rasoulof and Jafar Panahi remain in detention after they were arrested earlier this year. AFP
