IRAN: Taraneh Alidoosti, a top Iranian actress, has been released on bail, state media stated on Wednesday, weeks after she was arrested for objecting to a crackdown on anti-government demonstrations that wracked the Islamic Republic for months.
The pro-reform artist Alidoosti, who is best known for her role in “The Salesman,” which won an Academy Award in 2017, had supported the demonstrations, including by posting a photo of herself on Instagram in November without the mandatory hijab and holding up a sign that read “Woman, Life, Freedom” in Kurdish, which was a popular slogan in the large-scale demonstrations.
“Alidoosti, who was arrested on December 17, was released today on bail,” reported the semi-official ILNA news agency, citing her attorney without providing any further details.
Her photograph, taken in front of Tehran’s infamous Evin jail, was extensively shared on social media platforms.
The demonstrations, prompted by the death of a young Kurdish lady while in the morality police’s custody, have presented one of the biggest challenges to the legitimacy of the Shi’ite Muslim-run Islamic Republic since the revolution of 1979.
Since Amini’s passing, demonstrations from all walks of life have taken to the streets to demand the overthrow of the nation’s clerical leaders, with women around the country ripping off and setting fire to their headscarves in rage.
In support of the protests, where women have taken the lead, dozens of Iranian actresses and artists have shared photos of themselves without the mandatory hijab.
Iran’s religious rulers, experiencing their worst crisis of legitimacy in the last forty years, have accused a group of “anarchists, terrorists, and foreign enemies” of organising the demonstrations.
Two protest participants have been executed by the Islamic Republic thus far. At least 100 protestors who have been jailed could receive death sentences, according to the Iran Human Rights group located in Norway.
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