Culture

Iranwire – Three Iranian documentary filmmakers’ associations have called In a joint statement for the immediate release of Mina Keshavarz and Firoozeh Khosrovani, who were arrested at their homes on May 9 and have yet to reappear. “Despite numerous promises,” the statement read, “the situation of our colleagues remains unclear and no official explanation has been provided on how and why they were arrested.” The co-signatories were …

Iranwire – A renowned Iranian filmmaker has said that the offices and homes of several filmmakers and other industry professionals were raided and some of them arrested in recent days. Mohammad Rasoulof made the comments on Instagram late on May 14, posting a statement signed by dozens of movie industry professionals. The statement also claimed that security forces confiscated film production equipment …

RFL/RE – A group of Iranian archeologists have expressed concern over a bill in parliament that calls for measures to turn Iran into a regional hub for trading antiquities, fearing it will turn the country into a marketplace for illegal trade. In a letter addressed to parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, 61 archeology professors called on parliament to scrap the …

Iranwire – IranWire has received information that a new wave of arrests of documentary filmmakers and cinematographers has started in Iran. So far all of the known detainees have been women. “Last night, May 9, Mina Keshavarz and Firoozeh Khosrovani, two documentary filmmakers, were arrested at their homes,” an informed source told Iranwire on Tuesday. The next day, they said, security agents had …

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) – Award-winning independent filmmaker, Mohammad Rasoulof has penned the foreword to the 2021 Annual Report on the Death Penalty in Iran. Read the full report here. Full text: “Organised and legalised killings is an apt description of the death penalty in Iran. By relying on religious-based laws, the ruling political power initially presented the death penalty …

Iranwire – On Thursday, March 31, some 300 of women working in Iranian cinema published a joint letter of protest against behind-the-scenes violence and sexual harassment by members of the decades-old House of Cinema, also known as the Alliance of Iranian Motion Picture Guilds. Laying out a set of prescriptions needed for the institution to change, they wrote: “We consider it our right …

Iranwire – A former student of Oscar-winning Iranian film director Asghar Farhadi says Farhadi has now been summoned to court in Tehran over a case of alleged plagiarism. Azadeh Masihzadeh has accused the director of lifting a storyline she developed for use in his 2022 Oscar entry, A Hero. Her own documentary, All Winners, All Losers, was researched and created at a 2014 …

Iran-HRM – Iranian authorities have cancelled a music concert because three members of the band were women. The concert of Hamid Aramzadeh in Yazd, central Iran was cancelled because three of the musicians were women. In a video published on social media on on Tuesday, Aramzadeh appeared on stage before the performance, citing the presence of female musicians as the …

HRW – On March 23, 2022, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) reported that Iranian authorities arrested at least 20 people after organizing a Nowruz celebration in Sanandaj, Kurdistan province, on March 21. A day later, the Ministry of Intelligence office in Sanandaj summoned at least 10 more Kurdish activists and others for participating in the ceremony and detained at least one other person.  …

Iranwire — Last week Faranak Amidi, a BBC World Service presenter and women’s affairs reporter for BBC Persian, posted fresh pictures of herself in sports attire, posing and showing off her muscles. In the text that accompanied the pictures, she wrote: “On the cusp of turning 43, I feel I am as strong as I have ever been. I don’t …