The UK trade union Equity today adds its voice to international condemnation of the Iranian authorities following reports of executions and death sentences conferred onto protesters, including 26-year-old theatre actor Hossein Mohammadi.
Equity's International Committee for Artists Freedom understands that a number of performers expressing solidarity with the protesters have also been arrested. The most high profile name currently being Taraneh Alidoosti, one of Iran's most famous actors.
Equity General Secretary Paul W Fleming said:
Taraneh Alidoosti, Hossein Mohammadi and their comrades from across the Iranian creative community have our full support and solidarity in leading the fight for human rights and freedom of expression and association in Iran. We call on the regime to release all prisoners immediately and to engage with the legitimate demands of the ongoing protest movement. The resounding calls for change must be heard.
Paul W Fleming, Equity General Secretary
Rosamund Shelley, Chair of the International Committee for Artists Freedom, a voluntary committee of activists who lead the union’s campaigns against censorship and persecution of artists globally, said:
We join with activists and artists in the UK and across the world in calling for an end to the death sentences and arrests being meted out by the Iranian regime. The protest actions of Taraneh Alidoosti and Hossein Mohammadi are brave, courageous and necessary and we stand with them in resisting this horrific oppression.
Rosamund Shelley, Chair of the International Committee for Artists Freedom
Equity will shortly be writing to the UK Foreign Office to ask them to advocate for the release of Taraneh Alidoosti and Hossein Mohammadi.
