Iranian director Jafar Panahi (archive photo) Photo: Sideshow and Janus Films via AP
From BZ/dpa
Award-winning Iranian film director Jafar Panahi has reportedly gone on a hunger strike.
This was reported by filmmakers on social media on Wednesday evening, citing Panahi’s family. The 62-year-old has been in the notorious Ewin prison in the Iranian capital, Tehran, since July 2022. According to the judiciary, the director is serving a six-year prison sentence there for “anti-government propaganda”.
Panahi, who also takes a critical look at the politics of the Islamic Republic in his films, is one of the country’s most internationally renowned directors. For his latest film “No Bears” he received a special prize from the jury at the Venice Film Festival in his absence. He has received many other awards over the course of his career, such as the main prize at the Berlinale in 2015 for “Taxi Tehran”.
Several well-known filmmakers and directors are imprisoned in Iran. Among them is the Berlinale winner Mohammed Rassulof. Actresses who had shown solidarity with the wave of protests led by women were also arrested during the most recent demonstrations. Rassulof and Panahi were critical of the collapse of a shopping arcade under construction last summer.
The latest wave of protests in Iran was triggered by the death of the Iranian Kurd Jina Mahsa Amini in police custody in mid-September. She had been arrested by the so-called vice police for violating Islamic dress codes. Street protests have abated in recent weeks. Many women now express their displeasure through civil disobedience, for example by ignoring the compulsory headscarf.