Renewed Passport Seizure of 'My Favorite Cake' Creators; Maryam Maqdami Tells Behtash Saneiha: You Are Drowning Society in a 'Swamp of Lies'

Despite the announcement of the lifting of the travel ban on Maryam Maqdami and Behtash Saneiha, the filmmaker couple in Iran, Ms. Maqdami announced on her Instagram account that her passport had been seized again, revealing a renewed travel ban for her and her husband. On Wednesday, September 21, Maryam Maqdami posted a picture of the receipt for her passport seizure, stating: 'Yesterday, while I wanted to go see my family in Sweden after a long time and perhaps attend the screening of our film, my passport was seized again at the airport, and they said that Behtash and I have been banned from leaving the country again.' Ms. Maqdami also mentioned that it had only been 'a week' since the Islamic Republic authorities had returned their passports, and the renewed seizure occurred after they incurred expenses such as purchasing tickets and paying exit fees. The director and screenwriter further wrote: 'If they did not want to allow us to leave, why did they return the passports? To torment our souls and cause us harm?' Maryam Maqdami also addressed Masoud Behtash, the President of the Fourteenth Government of the Islamic Republic, saying: 'It is clear to any intelligent Iranian that your companions are not the companions of this nation. Your principlist allies at least do not claim to be anything other than what they are and are not pretending to be better. You are not only not leading society towards growth and reform, but you are drowning it in a swamp of lies.' Maryam Maqdami is a screenwriter and director in Iranian cinema who, due to the production and screening of the independent film 'My Favorite Cake' alongside her husband Behtash Saneiha, has faced a travel ban from the authorities of the Islamic Republic. The renewed seizure of this filmmaker couple's passports comes after they announced on September 16 in a letter that their travel ban had been lifted by a judicial order. Additionally, Babak Ghafouri Azar, a cinema journalist, previously described 'My Favorite Cake' as one of the most important Iranian films in the past 45 years.