Pantea Bahram Banned from Teaching and Activities by the Ministry of Culture

Pantea Bahram, a cinema and theater actress, announced on Instagram that the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance's security has banned her from activities and teaching. During the nationwide protests of 2022 in support of the demonstrators and in protest against the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police, Bahram removed her mandatory hijab and subsequently faced judicial harassment. Bahram, who was supposed to hold a training course for children, stated that she received a message from the organizers of the course indicating that "unfortunately, we couldn't manage" and that she received this message "on the phone" stating, "You are banned from activities, not even teaching!" She emphasized that she is not an employee of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and questioned, "Based on which law can the Ministry's security ban someone from activities and teaching?" Following the support of several cultural figures for the nationwide protests of 2022, some of them were summoned, arrested, and tried. Notably, Bahram, Baran Kowsari, Vishka Asayesh, Taraneh Alidoosti, Katayoun Riahi, Hengameh Ghaziani, Pegah Ahangarani, Maryam Bobani, Golab Adineh, Fatemeh Motamed-Arya, Shaghayegh Dehghan, and Afsaneh Bayegan are among the actresses who removed their hijabs in protest against the death of Mahsa Amini and in support of the nationwide protests. Documents previously provided to VOA by the hacker group 'Justice Ali' indicate that the Islamic Republic's intelligence agencies, in collaboration with several ministries and state media, have been working for years to 'manage specific figures' and have fabricated cases against some cultural and sports personalities. According to these documents, a committee titled 'Specific Figures' in the Ministry of Interior's Security Council held its first meeting on October 26, 2022, just ten days after the protests began, based on 'reports from security and intelligence agencies.' However, according to other documents held by VOA, a committee titled 'Management of Figures' existed in 2018 and 2019 in the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance that was connected with intelligence agencies, the Supreme National Security Council, and several ministries and state media. Previous reports from VOA emphasized that 'a number of specific sports, artistic, and cinematic figures' have taken a stance and supported the nationwide protests, which has 'caused more mobilization among the protesters' and, in line with what has been labeled as 'opposition and counter-revolutionary,' 'instead of reducing tensions in society, has acted to create unrest.'