More than 200 members of Iran’s film industry signed an open letter dated November 2, 2019, condemning state censorship and demanding “freedom of expression and thought” in the Islamic Republic. Most of the signatories are based in Iran including Jafar ...
Filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi poses for a photo beside his mother Iran Hamzehie. Several members of internationally acclaimed filmmaker Bahman ...
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 ...
“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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
"Our Sing-Along Didn’t Violate Any Rules" After the Iranian authorities banned musician Ali Ghamsari from performing “until further notice” for refusing to remove a female singer from his most recent concert in Tehran, he ...
Complaint Brought by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Prominent Iranian theater director and playwright Mohammad Rahmanian has been charged with “propaganda against the state” based on a complaint by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for allegedly featuring ...
Nikan Khosravi, a member of the Iranian metal band “Confess,” left Iran for Turkey to avoid being imprisoned for six years for producing metal music, he told the Center for Human Rights in Iran ...
“I am a professional Iranian singer but I am only ...
Editor's Note: Mahdavifar’s two-year prison sentence was upheld by an Appeals Court on July 3, 2018. Poet Mohammad Mahdavifar has been sentenced to two years in prison for criticizing Iranian Supreme Leader ...
Award-winning director Mohammad Rasoulof has revealed that he has been banned from making films in Iran and is not allowed to leave the country. “As soon as I arrived at ...
Detained after criticizing a powerful local lawmaker, Sina Ghalandari, an independent journalist based in the city of Kuhdasht, Lorestan Province, has been released on bail. “Every journalist or political activist who has criticized him ...
After finally receiving approval to screen his movie “I’m Not Angry” in Iran, director Reza Dormishian’s film was suddenly removed from theaters before its scheduled national premiere on December 20, 2017. On December ...
Iranian director Abdolreza Kahani cancelled a screening of one of his films in Canada after Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance threatened to ban his next film in Iran ...
Before musicians can perform concerts in Iran without the threat of the authorities suddenly canceling them, someone has to convince conservative Shia Muslim clerics that music is not un-Islamic. “Some of the things that ...
Hossein Zaman, a former Revolutionary Guards commander who has been banned from producing or performing music for more than 15 years, says the ban was put in place because Iran’s Intelligence Ministry wants to intimidate him into refraining from expressing his political views ...
Poet and civil rights activist Reza Ekvanyan has been sentenced to three years in prison and 40 lashes for the charges of “propaganda against the state” and “insulting the sacred” by Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran, presided by Judge Mashallah Ahmadzadeh ...
Behnam Rohani-Fard Interrogated “20 Times” in Solitary Confinement After being repeatedly interrogated while spending a month in solitary confinement, Iranian singer Behnam Rohani-Fard was released on 100 million tomans bail (approximately $30,156 USD) from Tehran’s Evin Prison on October ...
Arya Aramnejad Says Repression Has Continued Under New President Iranian pop singer Arya Aramnejad has been indefinitely banned from engaging in any musical activity by Iran’s Culture and Islamic ...
Three Iranians were issued jail terms and a fine for expressing their views on social media. Two residents of the Iranian city of Gorgan have been sentenced to prison and another fined ...
An imprisoned music producer has been sentenced to an additional year in prison on new charges brought by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) has learned. ...
Yousef Emadi Facing New Charge Imprisoned music producer Yousef Emadi was punished for three weeks by being moved to a quarantine ward and being denied family contact for arguing with a guard at ...
Contemporary Iranian music singers Shahram Nazeri (left) and Hafez Nazeri (middle) perform at a concert. Members ...
