Iran bans film festival after poster of actress without hijab | World news
AFP | | Posted by Sreelakshmi B
Iranian authorities have banned a film festival that displayed a poster showing an actress not wearing a hijab, state media reported.
The ban comes after the Iranian Short Film Association (ISFA) released a poster for the upcoming Short Film Festival featuring Iranian actress Susan Taslimi in the 1982 film “The Death of Yazdguerd”.
“The Minister of Culture has personally issued an order to ban the 13th edition of the ISFA Film Festival, after using a photo of a woman without a hijab on its poster against the law,” state news agency IRNA reported late Saturday.
The festival is scheduled to take place in September.
Wearing the hijab, which covers the head and neck, has been compulsory for women in Iran since 1983, shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
However, Iranian women have increasingly come out against the strict dress code since mass protests began last September calling for an end to the compulsory hijab.
The months-long protests were sparked by the death of 22-year-old Iranian Kurd Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by police for allegedly violating the strict Islamic dress code.
Earlier this month, the police said they had resumed patrols to catch the increasing number of women defying the law.
The judge’s website Mizan Online said on Saturday that legal action was taken against Digikala, a major e-commerce company, over pictures of women employees with bare heads.
On Wednesday, a Tehran court gave the famous actress Afsaneh Bayegan a suspended two-year prison sentence for refusing to wear a hijab in a public event.
He also ordered Bayegan to make weekly visits to a psychiatric center “to treat the mental disorder of having an anti-familial personality” and to submit a medical certificate after his treatment, Fars news agency reported.
