An Iranian filmmaker has claimed his country has banned him from traveling to the UK for the London Film Festival for supporting protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, which he described as a “great moment in history”.
“The Iranian authorities prevented me from boarding my plane bound for London on Friday,” Mani Haghighi said in a video message to festival-goers released on Friday by the British Film Institute (BFI) on Twitter.
“They gave me no satisfactory explanation for this really rude attitude,” he added.
Outrage over the September 16 death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, has sparked the biggest wave of protests in Iran since 2019 over rising fuel prices. Mahsa Amini died three days after she was arrested by Tehran’s Vice Police for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code for women, including wearing the veil.
The protests continue a month later, despite hundreds of arrests and a deadly crackdown by Iranian security forces.
According to the BFI, Mani Haghighi was supposed to attend the festival to present his latest film, Subtraction, but the Iranian authorities “confiscated his passport and he couldn’t go.”
In his message, the 53-year-old director, writer and actor asserted that the authorities did so because of his support for the protesters.
“Two weeks ago I recorded a video message on Instagram criticizing the veil laws and the oppression of the youth who are demonstrating against and so many other injustices,” he said.
“The authorities may have thought that by keeping me here, they could monitor me more closely, perhaps to threaten and silence me,” he added.
“The very fact that I am now speaking to you through this video is a kind of failure of this plan,” said the director, who has no regrets about having to remain a “prisoner” in his own country in Iran.
“I cannot put into words the joy and honor of being able to witness this great moment in history in person and I would rather be here than anywhere else right now,” he added. If this is punishment for what I did, please do it.”