An Iranian filmmaker has claimed his country has banned him from traveling to the UK for the London Film Festival, due to his support for protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, which he called "
great moment in history
”.
“
The Iranian authorities prevented me from boarding my plane for London on Friday
,” Mani Haghighi said in a video message to festival attendees and posted on Twitter by the British Film Institute (BFI) on Friday.
“
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 the morality police in Tehran for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic's strict dress code for women, including the wearing of the veil.
Protests continue a month later, despite hundreds of arrests and a deadly crackdown by Iranian security forces.
Read alsoIran: new call to demonstrate on Saturday, Joe Biden in solidarity with “brave women”
According to the BFI, Mani Haghighi was due to attend the festival for the presentation of his new film,
Subtraction
(
Subtraction
), but the Iranian authorities "
confiscated his passport and he was unable to leave
".
In his message, the 53-year-old director, writer and actor assures that the authorities did so because of his support for the protesters.
"
Two weeks ago I recorded a video message on Instagram in which I criticized the laws requiring the veil to be worn and the repression exerted on the youth who are demonstrating against this and against so many other subjects of injustice
" , he explained.
“
The authorities may have thought that by keeping me here they could monitor me more closely, perhaps to threaten me and silence me.
The mere fact that I am talking to you now through this video is a kind of failure for this plan
”, adds the director, who says he does not regret being forced to stay in Iran as a “
prisoner
” in his own country.
"
I cannot express in words the joy and honor of being able to witness this great moment in history in person and I would rather be here now than anywhere else
," he added.
“
If this is a punishment for what I did, then please go ahead.
»