The Alleged Rape Case That Has Shaken Iran

Iranwire – It was the worst-kept secret in Iran.

On October 21, Iranian media reported that “a famous actor” had been arrested on rape charges. Media organizations inside Iran did not mention his name. But images of former soccer player-turned-actor Pejman Jamshidi were all over social media.

Jamshidi is the celebrity’s celebrity in Iran. In terms of his athletic success, he was like David Beckham, Iranian style, with a similar ubiquitous marketing presence, and his celebrity status as an actor is similar to that of George Clooney. Jamshidi is involved in charities, sells products on TV, and his face is on thousands of billboards in Iran.

Jamshidi’s arrest shocked Iran for days. Some of Jamshidi’s fans on social media reminisced about girls who threw themselves at Jamshidi.

But beyond the fame, for many Iranians, especially women, the reports of the alleged rape and impunity are the story of thousands of Iranian women who go through similar experiences every day.

Jamshidi’s story has shaken Iran because, a few years ago, a man of his status would never have been held accountable for his actions.

But the Woman, Life, Freedom protests, which started in September 2022, changed Iran. Men in power have realized they must respect women’s rights.

Jamshidi was released four days after his arrest when his temporary detention was converted to bail. The victim’s name was unknown, and many assumed the story would fade, as they often do.

Journalist Elahe Mohammadi, who was arrested in September 2022 after covering Mahsa Amini’s funeral and remained in detention for 17 months, talked exclusively with the victim and her mother.

In Mohammadi’s article in the Ham-Mihan newspaper, the victim alleges that Jamshidi assaulted, drugged, and raped her. He and his associates then offered 50 billion tomans, roughly $460,000, for her silence. The average income in Iran is around $250 per month.

The young woman, who requested anonymity, said the medical examiner has confirmed rape. For six months, she says, people tried to buy her silence. She refused every offer. Kambiz Barjas, one of Jamshidi’s lawyers, told Ham-Mihan that the legal team has not yet read the case file but denies the rape allegation.

The victim says she had been trying to become an actress in recent years, playing minor roles and sending her resume to established directors and actors.

“I had sent my resume to Mr. Jamshidi, too,” she said. “One day, he called me and invited me to come to the set of the series Mahkoom or Found Guilty, a popular detective story in which Jamshidi plays a detective.”

The victim added, “I went, and he praised me a lot there and said I was very talented. He said he would help me become a great actress.” She said she was pleased her resume had received attention from an established actor.

Days later, Jamshidi called again with what seemed like an opportunity. “He said, ‘Come talk about a screenplay and sign a contract.’ So I went to the set,” she said. According to her account, Jamshidi told her the contract was elsewhere and that she needed to accompany him.

“I trusted him and went with him,” she said. “When we entered the house, he locked the door and started smoking drugs and blowing the smoke in my face. He tied my hands and feet and then forcibly had sexual intercourse with me. I couldn’t move or fight back.” She said Jamshidi became intoxicated and fell to the side, allowing her to search for and find the door key.

“I quietly opened the door and went to the alley, started screaming and crying. I felt terrible,” she said. Residents responded to her cries. She says two people told her to go to the medical examiner, and they took her there immediately. The victim’s mother was not in Tehran that night.

The mother of the victim, whom Mohammadi also interviewed, says, “They called me and said your daughter had an accident and to get yourself to forensic medicine,” she said through tears. “I got myself to Tehran and went straight there and found out what had happened.”

The mother said they initially hesitated to file a complaint, but days later, her daughter received a summons: Jamshidi had filed an extortion complaint against her.

The mother said, “I was furious. I called him myself and said, ‘Instead of saying you made a mistake and regret it, you complained about my daughter? Now that you’ve done this, we’re also complaining against you.’”

They filed their complaint, and 20 days later, a crime scene investigation order was issued. “That same night, the medical examiner confirmed the rape,” the victim said. “After we filed a complaint, the court requested information from forensic medicine again.

“This time, they also took a DNA test from Jamshidi, and when they matched it with the previous test, they confirmed the rape again.” The second round of testing took two months.

The victim said all documentation exists in the file. At the court hearing last week, according to the mother, Jamshidi told the judge he had performed and conducted Sigheh or temporary marriage with her daughter.

Sigheh is a uniquely Shia Islamic practice according to which a man can temporarily marry a woman for a few minutes to several years. Many people use Sigheh in Iran to avoid being arrested for “illegitimate relationships.”

But a proper Sigheh must be carried out by a religious authority acting as an officiant. According to the mother,  “The judge asked Jamshidi immediately, ‘Did you carry out the Sigheh yourself?’ He said yes. The judge said, ‘Let me see how you carry out Sigheh right here. I want to see if you know how to do it.’ And Jamshidi couldn’t read it,” the mother said. “Jamshidi had lied, and his lie became clear.”

The mother said the judges were “good people” who listened to her daughter’s statements and were convinced. Based on the examiner’s results and her daughter’s testimony, the court issued a detention order.

Four days later, Jamshidi was released on bail. The victim’s mother questioned the speed of the process. “We’re not people who want someone executed, but we’re upset about how quickly this case was sent from criminal court to appeals,” she said. “Why did they release him so quickly? Does everyone’s work stuck in bureaucracy at the courthouse get done this fast?”

The complaint process has stretched across six months. Throughout that time, the victim and her mother described facing sustained pressure through financial offers, repeated phone calls, and efforts to halt the case.

“During all this time, his friends repeatedly tried to silence me,” the victim says. “Just this past week, on the day they arrested him, they made billion-toman offers to us, and we didn’t accept.”

The victim said Jamshidi himself asked multiple times how much money would persuade her to drop the complaint. “Even his lawyers put us under pressure,” she said.

Zahra Minouei, a lawyer who has worked on rape cases, told Ham-Mihan that Iran’s legal system faces challenges in handling sexual violence.

“Unfortunately, our culture is a rape culture in the sense that as soon as a story emerges, judgments begin and attack the narrator,” Minouei said.

Minouei added, “We haven’t learned to listen, to definitely not comment, to be silent, to watch until a legal case proceeds.” She said society rushes to protect the accused’s reputation while freely judging the victim.

“Our society judges people quickly, from ‘she must have been after money’ to ‘a trap was set for the abuser’ and ‘there’s a conspiracy.’”

The mother of the victim said the names circulating on social media identifying the victim are false. “It’s not our duty to issue a statement and reveal our identity so that the names of people mistakenly spread as the complainant get removed from social media,” she said.

The victim has said she will not withdraw her complaint. “We want people to understand what he did,” the mother said. “We want those who closed their eyes to reality to understand they mistakenly supported him.”

A few hours after the article was published, Jamshidi left Iran for Turkey. In a short statement, he denied all the charges and accused the victim of lying. “I hope I can go back home, look into my father’s eyes, kiss his hands, and tell him, ‘It’s all lies. It’s not like what’s reported in the media.’”