“Women, Life, Freedom”: Venice Festival Expresses Solidarity with Iranian Women

A group of protesters called by the Venice Festival, including the filmmaker Jane Campion and the director of the event Alberto Barbera, demonstrated this Saturday on the red carpet of the Lido Film Palace in solidarity with Iran, shouting "women, life, liberty".

Among the banners were the messages demanding the release of the filmmaker Saeed Roustaee, who has been imprisoned for six months because of the screening at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival of "Leila's brothers", a drama that portrayed a family trying to get out of poverty in a country undermined by international economic sanctions.

Saeed Roustee participated in the Venice Festival in 2019, in the Horizons section, with "Metri Shesho Nim" ("The Law of Tehran").

The Venice Film Festival: solidarity with Iran

It is the second consecutive year that the Mostra has organized an act in solidarity with Iran, in collaboration with the Democratic Association of the Iranian People in Venice, after last year due to the imprisonment of Jafar Panahi, released on bail last February .

This weekend's demonstration coincides with the projection in the Horizons section of the film "Tatami", by the Israeli director Guy Nattiv and the Iranian actress and co-director Zar Amir Ebrahimi, about a young Iranian judoka forced to withdraw from a competition to avoid to face an Israeli athlete.

What is happening in Iran?

In Iran, a social outbreak took place last year that was started by protests a little less than a year ago. These protests were called in response to the killing of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini by morality police for not wearing her chador properly.

Read also: Iran: Protests Continue Despite Death Penalty

The protests lasted for more than three months in Iran despite the fact that in this country the death penalty is carried out. So several protesters have been sentenced to death.

In 1979 the Islamic Revolution took place in Iran. To date, the forces of the Islamic Revolution have seized power and have interpreted the Koran in their own way. Among the religious mandates that have since become political are the exclusion of women from the public sphere and capital punishment in public.

This regime crackdown, designed to intimidate the population, only convinced them last year to join demonstrations in support of Iranian women after the police murder of Mahsa Amini.

Since then, various international organizations have called attention to and have criticized Ayatollah Ali Khamenei so that his interpretation of the Koran is not the guide for enacting laws.

The protest that took place this weekend at the Venice Film Festival is therefore part of the international demonstrations of support for Iranian women and the population in general.