Poster Hair Controversy: Iranian Film Festival Faces Ban

An Iranian woman photographed without a hijab on the cover of the 13th edition ISFA film festival has led to government authorities cancelling September’s event, according to Reuters.

The publicity photo of Iranian actress Susan Taslimi was released by ISFA for the upcoming short-film festival before the culture minister personally issued an order to ban the awards on Saturday 29th July.

Since September 2022 have been many protests by women refusing to wear compulsory headscarves, following the death of 22-year-old Iranian Kurd Mahsa Amini.

Amini was arrested for allegedly breaching the legal dress code in public before being beaten by morality police three days later.

Earlier this month more policing took to the streets, arresting any women who have been ignoring the law.

The headscarf has been compulsory for women in Iran since 1983, 4 years after the revolution, enforcing women to cover the head and neck.

The judiciary’s Mizan Online website stated on the same day that there would be legal measures taken against the e-commerce company Digikala which took and released the photograph of Taslami.

Sanctions have been put on other prominent actors such as Afsaneh Bayegan after she failed to wear a headscarf at a public event where she was handed a suspended 2-year prison sentence.

She has also been ordered to attend a psychological centre weekly ‘to treat the mental disorder of having an anti-family personality.’