Tehran: Iranian filmmaker Mani Haghighi has been prevented from leaving Iran to attend the BFI London Film Festival, because of his support for the protests sparked by the death of the 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody.
British Film Institute on Friday, October 14 took to Twitter and shared a video of Mani Haghighi and captioned, “Mani Haghighi was supposed to attend the festival to screen his latest film “Subtraction“, but the Iranian authorities confiscated his passport and he was unable to leave.”
In the details, 53-year-old Mani Haghighi said in a video message broadcast to festival attendees and posted by the British Film Institute on Twitter, “Iranian authorities prevented me from boarding the plane to London on Friday. The officials did not give me a real reason behind this rude behaviour.”
Great moment
In the same video, the filmmaker explained, “Two weeks ago, I published a video clip on Instagram, in which I criticized the laws that impose the wearing of the veil and the repression practiced on young people who demonstrate against them, and against many unjust issues.”
“Maybe the authorities thought that by keeping me here they could keep a close eye on me, perhaps to threaten and silence me,” he added.
Mani said that he does not regret being forced to remain in Iran as a prisoner in his country, considering that “just talking to you now through this video is one of the failures of this plan.”
He continued, “My words are not enough to express the joy and pride in being able to personally attend this great moment in history, and I would rather be here now than be anywhere else… If this is a punishment for what I did, please continue.”
September 16, the Islamic Republic has witnessed protests following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, three days after she was arrested by the morality police for not adhering to strict dress codes.
Dozens, including members of the security forces, died on the sidelines of the protests, of which women are an essential part. The authorities announced the arrest of hundreds of protesters for their involvement in protests.
