Iran: Actress Taraneh Alidoosti ends career in protest against compulsory headscarf

The well-known Iranian actress Taraneh Alidoosti has announced that she will end her career in protest against the headscarf requirement in the country. “I will no longer act in a film with a headscarf, under any conditions,” said the 41-year-old in an interview for a documentary about her life.

She was active in the film business for more than two decades and celebrated numerous successes. But now it’s over for them. As long as the headscarf requirement in films is not lifted, she wants to devote herself to other activities, she said in an interview with documentary filmmaker Pegah Ahangaran.

Alidoosti received widespread support and praise on social networks. Her best-known films include the dramas “The Salesman” and “All About Elly,” both directed by two-time Oscar winner Asghar Farhadi.

Alidoosti described the women’s movement in September 2022 as a “social explosion” in which an entire nation demanded an end to the compulsory headscarf. Since then, it has been unimaginable for her to appear in films with a headscarf. This would be a “farce” that she did not want to support. With her decision she also wanted to set an example in the fight against the Islamic headscarf law.

In December 2022, Alidoosti was arrested during the nationwide protests in Iran – in front of her young daughter. She had previously expressed her solidarity with the women’s movement and published a photo on Instagram without a headscarf. The security authorities accused her of “supporting counter-revolutionary circles”.

She was later banned from working. Despite lucrative offers from abroad, she decided to stay in Iran. “Despite all the problems, this is still my home,” she emphasized several times.

The trigger for the women’s movement and the protests was the death of the young Kurdish woman Mahsa Jina Amini in September 2022. She was arrested for allegedly violating the headscarf requirement and died in police custody a few days later. Since then, many women in Iran have ignored the obligation to wear a headscarf. Even a law with draconian penalties passed by hardliners in parliament could do little to change this.