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Prominent Iranian actress arrested after voicing support for protests

  • Taraneh Alidoosti, known for her role in the Oscar-winning 2016 film The Salesman, was detained for ‘publishing false and distorted content and inciting chaos’
  • Iran has been rocked by protests triggered by the September 16 death of Mahsa Amini after her arrest for an alleged breach of the country’s dress code

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Iranian actress Taraneh Alidoosti at the Cannes film festival in France in May. Alidoosti has been arrested on charges of spreading falsehoods about protests in Iran, state media said on Saturday,. Photo: AP
Agence France-Presse

Iran arrested a prominent actress on Saturday after she voiced support for the three-month-old protest movement triggered by the death of a woman in custody, Iranian media reported on Saturday.

Taraneh Alidoosti, 38, was detained for “publishing false and distorted content and inciting chaos,” the Tasnim news agency reported.

She is best known for her role in the Oscar-winning 2016 film The Salesman.

Protesters perform a mock funeral as they take part in a demonstration against Iran’s regime staged by the Iranian community in Turin, Italy on Saturday following Iran’s public execution of two young demonstrators, Mohsen Shekari and Majidreza Rahnavard. Photo: EPA-EFE
Protesters perform a mock funeral as they take part in a demonstration against Iran’s regime staged by the Iranian community in Turin, Italy on Saturday following Iran’s public execution of two young demonstrators, Mohsen Shekari and Majidreza Rahnavard. Photo: EPA-EFE

Alidoosti’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.

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“Your silence means the support of the oppression and the oppressor,” read text on an image shared to Alidoosti’s Instagram account.

“Every international organisation who is watching this bloodshed and not taking action, is a disgrace to humanity,” Alidoosti wrote in the caption of her post.

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The actor has been a prominent presence in Iranian cinema since she was a teenager. Recently, she starred in the film Leila’s Brothers, which screened at this year’s Cannes International Film Festival.

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