“Why Should We Be Silent?” Colleagues Condemn Photographer’s Unjust Detention
Film and theater photographer Nooshin Jafari has been detained at an undisclosed location in ...
ART, CULTURE, SOCIETY
July 30, 2019
Iranian Heavy Metal Band Members Escape to Norway After Receiving Prison Sentences
Nikan Khosravi and Arash Ilkhani, members of the Iranian heavy metal band Confess, have left Iran to escape prosecution and prison for their art. “We took a risk and left the country so that we could continue ...
July 26, 2019
Cannes Film Festival, Iranian Filmmakers Condemn Sentence Against Colleague Mohammad Rasoulof
Acclaimed director Mohammad Rasoulof was sentenced to one year in prison in Tehran in July 2019. He has been banned from making films or leaving Iran since 2017. International film festivals including the ...
July 24, 2019
Mohammad Rasoulof’s Films Were Banned in Iran, Now He’s Been Sentenced to Prison
“We have to pay a price, and every person will pay some price,” says acclaimed filmmaker July 24, 2019 – The sentencing of award-winning filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof to one year in prison for the content of his films has highlighted ...
July 8, 2019
Maz Jobrani: “We Need to Go Beyond Just Standing Up for People That Look Like Us”
After gunmen killed 12 staff members of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo for the paper's content in 2015, Iranian-American comedian Maz Jobrani joined colleagues in a video produced by the Center for Human Rights in ...
June 20, 2019
Abdolreza Kahani: “We are Born Into Censorship”
In Iran, the Ministry of Guidance and Islamic Culture imposes a strict process of review and approval for all screenplays before films can be legally produced in the country. Films that are produced also face censorship, and directors ...
June 6, 2019
Nazanin Boniadi: “Silence is Not an Option”
As a girl visiting her birth country of Iran, British actress Nazanin Boniadi got a taste of the severely restricted rights women there live with on a daily basis. That experience inspired her to get educated ...
May 28, 2019
Khosrow Semnani: Iran Funds Repression “Through Corruption by Design”
The Iranian-American engineer, businessman, and philanthropist Khosrow Semnani made a name in foreign policy circles in both Washington and Tehran in 2013 after he published a comprehensive report about the environmental and human costs of a military strike ...
May 13, 2019
Interview With Literary Figure Alireza Behnam on Censorship
“Authors have learned that they cannot write about things that are against the country’s official religion, or against national security, or anything that promotes ‘moral corruption’ and ‘indecency.’” State censorship of the publishing industry in Iran ...
April 30, 2019
Banned Works at Tehran Book Fair Highlight Iran’s Corrosive Censorship Policies
“People Lack Buying Power, Writers Lack Inspiration,” Says Novelist Several books by dissident authors in Iran were banned from the 32nd Tehran International Book Fair (April 24-May 4) by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, the ...
April 19, 2019
Iranian Actress Asks Minister Why She Was Pulled from Film Set Based on “Order from Above”
Iranian actress Maryam Moghaddam (also referred to as Moqadam), has written an open letter to Iran’s Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Abbas Salehi asking why she was suddenly barred from working on a movie. “Mr. Minister! This ...
February 22, 2019
Concert Cancellations Continue in Mashhad Due to Intolerance by Religious Conservatives
A concert by the popular Persian pop band Hoorosh was canceled by judicial order an hour before show time on February 20, 2019, in the city of Firouzeh, northeastern ...