Headscarf removed in public: well-known Iranian actresses arrested

Actresses Hengameh Ghasiani and Katajun Riahi have been taken into custody after publicly removing their headscarves, Iranian state media reported on Sunday. Ghasiani, 52, a fierce critic of the authorities’ actions against the protesters, posted a video on Instagram on Saturday evening in which she took off her headscarf.

“Maybe this will be my last post,” she wrote. “Whatever happens to me, you should know that I will stand with the Iranian people until my last breath.” Last week she described the Iranian government as a “child killer” and accused them of “murdering” more than 50 children.

According to the state news agency IRNA, Ghasiani was arrested for inciting and supporting “riots” and for contacting opposition media. Riahi had also shown solidarity with the protest movement. In September she gave an interview to the London TV channel Iran International, in which she did not wear a headscarf.

According to the Iranian judiciary, seven other celebrities from film, sports and politics have also been summoned by the prosecution. Among them is Jahja Golmohammadi, coach of the football club Persepolis FC from Tehran. He had criticized the players of the Iran national team for not “bringing the voice of the oppressed people to the authorities”.

Meanwhile, another man has been sentenced to death in connection with the protests. The Revolutionary Court in Tehran found him guilty of “drawing a knife during the recent unrest with intent to kill, spread terror and disrupt society,” Iran’s judiciary said on Sunday on its website Misan Online.

It is the sixth death sentence handed down in connection with the demonstrations. Iran has been rocked by protests since the death of young Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini on September 16. The 22-year-old was arrested by the moral police because she would have worn her headscarf incorrectly. She died in hospital a short time later. Activists accuse the police of abusing Amini.

Iranian authorities describe most of the demonstrators as “rioters” who are exploited by foreign powers and brutally crack down on the protests. (sda/afp)