Iran released a well-known actress on Wednesday, state media reported, after spending two-and-a-half weeks in detention for condemning the government’s harsh response to the mass protests that have rocked the country since September.

The actress, Taraneh AlidoostiThe 38-year-old was arrested on December 18 after urging Iranians to support anti-government protests, becoming one of the top targets of Iran’s campaign against sports stars, rappers, directors, actors and other celebrities who expressed their solidarity with the protesters .

On Wednesday, Iran’s semi-official news agency ISNA said Alidoosti, star of the 2016 Oscar-winning film ‘The Salesman’, directed by Asghar Farhadi, was released on bail, citing his lawyer, Zahra Minouie.

Photos later circulated on social media that appeared to show Alidoosti outside Evin Prison, the notorious center of Tehran where Iran routinely holds political opponents, academics, writers and other prominent dissidents.

She had her hair down covered by a scarf and a bouquet of flowers in her hand.

Protests spread across Iran in mid-September following the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by Iran’s morality police on charges of violating the law requiring women to wear headscarves and dresses modest.

Although the protests initially focused on the dismantling of the hijab law, they soon expanded to demand its end of the whole system Iranian ruler.

As the authorities repressed with bullets and beatings, resulting in hundreds of deaths and thousands of arrests, Alidoosti became one of the most vocal voices famous who encouraged the protests and denounced the brutal response.

“Your silence means supporting oppression and oppressors,” Alidoosti wrote on social media in December, after authorities announced the hanging of 23-year-old Mohsen Shekari, one of two protesters Iran has executed so far.

In reporting his detention, state news agencies described his postings as “baseless commentary on recent events” and “posting inflammatory material”.

The judiciary said in a statement it had sued a number of personalities, including Alidoosti, for publishing claims it believed were unsubstantiated about what the government calls “riots”, but as she failed to provide evidence, she was arrested.

Alidoosti, who was also prosecuted in June 2020 for Twitter posts criticizing police for assaulting an Iranian woman who took off her headscarf, had previously posted a photo of herself with ebare hairholding a placard showing his support for the protesters.

However, when she was arrested, her accounts Twitter and Instagram they have been removed.

Those accounts weren’t yet available Wednesday night.

The Iranian government attributes the protests to a conspiracy of foreign countries and has remained defiant in the face of international condemnation.

The supreme leader of the country, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, She told a meeting with hundreds of Iranian women on Wednesday that Westerners were “hypocrites” for criticizing women’s place in Islam while oppressing women in their own countries.

“The modernized West and its decadent culture are really guilty in this sense and have committed a crime against the honor and dignity of women,” she said, according to ISNA, defending the “advanced” and “right” view of Islam. the woman.

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