TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Women in Iranian film industry slam sexual violence
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Urging change: Iranian actress Taraneh Alidoosti poses as she arrives on May 22, 2016 for the closing ceremony of the 69th Cannes Film Festival in France. Alidoosti is one of more than 250 women in the Iranian film industry that have signed a statement demanding a committee be formed to address “systematic” sexual harassment in the industry. (AFP/Anne-Christine Poujoulat)
O
ver 250 women working in Iran's film industry have signed a statement condemning what they call "systematic" sexual harassment and demanding that a committee address the issue.
People in power in Iranian cinema were known to exploit their positions "to bully, threaten, insult, humiliate and assault women", they charged.
"Acts of violence are systematic," said the statement signed by some of Iran's most prominent actresses, film directors and producers.
"We condemn any violence and sexual harassment in the workplace, and to end it, we call for serious legal consequences for the violators."
Iranian cinema is well known around the world, as many of the country's movies have screened at film festivals and won international awards.
The signees include Taraneh Alidoosti, who had a lead role in the Oscar-winning 2016 film The Salesman, Pouran Derakhshandeh, as well as Parinaz Izadyar, Nikki Karimi and Hedieh Tehrani, all household names in Iran.
The celebrities called for the formation of an independent, majority women committee "educated on the issue of sexual and gender-based violence" to investigate reports of abuse.
