The Iranian director Asghar Farhadi calls for the release of the arrested actress Taraneh Alidoosti

Oscar winner Asghar Farhadi calls for the release of actress Taraneh Alidoosti, who was arrested in Iran.

In an Instagram post, Farhadi wrote: “I worked with Taraneh on four films and now she is in prison for her rightful support of her countrymen and for challenging their unjust sentences. If it is a crime to show such support, then tens of millions of people in this country are criminals.”

Taraneh was reportedly arrested after she posted on social media expressing her solidarity with anti-government protesters after being accused of spreading “falsehoods” about the protest movement. Before her social media was shut down, she condemned people who did not speak out against the execution of human rights activist Mohsen Shekari.

Farhadi sent in Alidoosti The sellerwho won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2017 and has worked with her on several other films.

Alidoosti won a competitive title at this year’s Cannes Film Festival Leila’s brothersand appeared in the film orca.

Farhadi also called for the release of other prominent Iranian creatives involved in the current culture war with the government. “I stand with Taraneh and ask for her release along with that of my colleagues Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof and all other lesser known prisoners whose only crime is trying to get a better life,” he wrote.

Panahi and Rasoulof are among the creative industries that have been arrested recently. The list also includes filmmaker Mostafa Al-Ahmad, singer Shervin Hajipour and Tehran-based Kurdish rapper Saman Yasin.

Alidoosti recently posted an Instagram photo without the headscarf, a piece of clothing that is mandatory in the Islamic Republic. It came in solidarity with the widespread anti-government protests sparked by the death in police custody of a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman, Mahsa Amini, for not wearing a headscarf in public.