About 300 Iranian filmmakers have 'open judicial cases' following the protests of 2022

The spokesperson for the House of Cinema stated that approximately 300 Iranian filmmakers have 'open judicial cases' due to the political, social, and security conditions following the protests of 2022, and they are still unable to work. On Tuesday, September 10, 2023, Rasoul Sadr-Aameli announced at a press conference: 'About 300 of our colleagues have open judicial cases due to political, social, and security conditions and cannot act or make films and are still trapped.' While numerous reports have emerged over the past two years regarding security and judicial actions against actors and other Iranian filmmakers for supporting the 'Women, Life, Freedom' protests and opposing mandatory hijab, this is the first time the number of 300 filmmakers has been mentioned. The House of Cinema reported that 100 artists in Iran have been detained or banned from leaving the country. In November 2022, a legal support committee for filmmakers formed within the House of Cinema announced that, in collaboration with the House of Theater and Music, it had prepared a list of 100 artists who were banned from leaving or detained. This committee also stated that since the protests following the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody began, 'most famous actors and directors' have faced work bans, and contracts for some have been canceled. As female actors continue to resist the mandatory hijab and support the protesters, further news about summons, arrests, or charges against them has been published in the media in 2023 and this year. The spokesperson for the House of Cinema did not provide further details about the charges against filmmakers but mentioned that the Iranian Cinema Festival will not be held this year as judging under these conditions is not 'fair.' The last Iranian Cinema Festival, an industry event to award winners in various fields and judge films released over the year, was held in 2019. Rasoul Sadr-Aameli also reported that the House of Cinema raised the issue of 'open cases' of filmmakers in a meeting with Abbas Salehi, the new Minister of Culture, who promised to address the issue quickly with the help of the legal team of the House of Cinema. Officials from the previous government's cinema organization commented multiple times against female actors who, according to them, 'unveiled.' The Islamic Republic officials use the term 'unveiling' for women opposing Islamic hijab or mandatory hijab. Following the 'Women, Life, Freedom' protests that began in late September 2022, many artists, including female actors, appeared in public gatherings without mandatory hijab in support of these protests or posted photos without mandatory covering and supportive messages for the protesters on social media. Minister of Culture Mohammad Mahdi Esmaeili confirmed in November 2023 that more than ten female actors who unveiled have been banned from working, stating: 'We have previously announced that hijab is the law, and we will enforce the law.' He considered non-compliance with mandatory hijab as 'non-implementation of the law' and emphasized: 'It is not possible to work for those who do not implement the law.' Earlier, Iranian state media published a list of female actors who had been 'banned from working,' including names like Baran Kosari, Vishka Asayesh, Taraneh Alidoosti, Katayoun Riahi, Pantea Bahram, Fatemeh Motamed-Arya, Golab Adineh, Afsaneh Bayegan, Hengameh Qaziani, Pegah Ahangarani, Maryam Bobani, and Shaghayegh Dehghan. However, some filmmakers and guilds within the House of Cinema reacted to the statements of the Ministry of Culture officials, stating that some of these actors are no longer interested in working. The Directors Guild and the Supreme Council of Producers of Iranian Cinema issued a joint statement deeming the restrictions imposed on these actors by the Ministry of Culture as 'a clear example of crisis creation in cinema.' On the other hand, the judiciary's actions against female actors have continued this year, and on September 7, it was announced that following the appearance of Baran Kosari and Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami without mandatory hijab at a film discussion session, the Tehran prosecutor's office filed charges against these two filmmakers. In mid-August, the lawyer of Afsaneh Bayegan, a well-known cinema and television actress, announced that his client had been sentenced in court for 'publishing obscene images' to pay a fine of 2.5 million tomans, replacing and substituting 91 days of imprisonment as the main punishment, and also to 18 months of prohibition from any activity in cyberspace and a ban on leaving the country as an additional punishment. Meanwhile, over the past two years, dozens of short and feature films have been made in Iran without adhering to the censorship regulations of the Islamic Republic, including mandatory hijab, and some of these films have participated in international festivals and won awards.