Iranian actors Hengameh Ghaziani and Katayoun Riahi have been arrested after expressing solidarity with the protest movement and removing their headscarves in public, as reported by state media on Sunday (November 20).
Ghaziani and Riahi were detained after prosecutors probed their social media posts, according to state-run IRNA news agency.
Ghaziani, star of 2008’s As Simple As That and and 2012’s Days Of Life, has been a vocal critic on the crackdown on protestors, and was arrested for inciting and supporting the “riots” and for communication with opposition media, IRNA stated.
“Maybe this will be my last post,” she wrote on Instagram on Saturday (November 19).
“From this moment on, whatever happens to me, know that as always, I am with the Iranian people until my last breath.”
Her Instagram video showed her standing in the street, with no headscarf, and tying her hair in a ponytail.
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Riahi, who appeared in 2002’s The Last Supper, was later arrested in the same probe, according to IRNA, after in September giving an interview to London-based Iran International TV, without wearing a hijab.
The judiciary’s Mizan Online news website has reported that actors including Mitra Hajjar and Baran Kosari have also been summoned.
The Salesman star Taraneh Alidoosti posted an image of herself on social media without the mandatory headscarf earlier this month, and has vowed to stay in Iran at “any price”, stopping working to support families of those killed or arrested in the protest crackdown. She has since expressed her support on Instagram for Ghaziani and Riahi.
Protests erupted in Iran and have spread across the globe after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini’s death in custody on September 16 while being detained by the morality police in Tehran for “inappropriate attire”.
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