Asghar Farhadi Urges Artists Around The World to Join Protests Erupting Over Death of Young Woman Arrested in Iran for Loose Headscarf

variety.com:

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent As protests continue to erupt in Iran and around the world sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini – the young Iranian woman who died last week while being held in custody by morality police for allegedly wearing a loose headscarf – the country’s film community is intensely engaged and keenly aware that their voices are now even more at risk of being quashed.

Two-time Oscar-winning Iranian director Asghar Farhadi (“A Separation”), who is currently presiding over the Zurich Film Festival jury, has issued a statement and a video appeal urging artists around the world to proclaim their solidarity with the Iranian people who are protesting against the death of Amini.

Iran’s morality police arrested Amini, who was 22, on Sept. 13 in Tehran. She died at a police station three days later. The police say she died of a heart attack, but she had no history of a cardiac condition.

In an unprecedented wave of street protests in Iran, women have torn off their hijabs, twirled them in the air and thrown them into bonfires, online videos show. “I saw them closely these nights,” Farhadi said in his appeal. “Most of them are very young — 17 years old, 20 years old.