Iran International
Zar Amir-Ebrahimi, Best Actress at Cannes Film Festival says her heart is with the people of Abadan where a recent building collapse has sparked angry protests.
"Although I’m very happy at this moment, part of me is sad for the people of Iran who are grappling with many problems daily. I'm here, but my heart is with the women and men of Iran. My heart is with Abadan," actress Zar (Zahra) Amir-Ebrahimi said in her acceptance speech inher native Persian with a quivering voice.
Thousands have taken to the streets in Abadan and several other Iranian cities to protest against the government over the past few days following the collapse of an illegally built, new ten story building on Monday.
The tragedy has so far claimed 29 lives and many more are feared dead under the debris. Protesters have been chanting slogans against Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other officials who they hold responsible for corruption and mismanagement of the country.
Amir-Ebrahimi received her award for playing the role of a journalist in search of a serial killer in Holy Spider. The thriller directed by Denmark-based Iranian-Canadian filmmaker Ali Abbasi is inspired by the true story of serial killer Saeed Hanaei who strangled 16 women in the religious city of Mashhad between 2000-2001.
Many Iranians feel proud of Amir-Ebrahimi, the first woman of Iranian cinema to earn the award but hardliners have condemned Amir-Ebrahimi for playing in the film which they say insults their religious beliefs.
Hanaei who came to be known as the "Spider Killer" was finally caught and hanged in 2002 but many alleged that the police had closed its eyes to his murders for so long because he chose his victims from among prostitutes. He even turned into a hero for those who supported his claim in the court that he wanted to cleanse the city of his victims’ ‘moral corruption’.
The poster of the film has particularly angered the hardline religious establishment. It shows Mashhad from above at night with the shrine of the 8th Imam of Shiites of the 8th Imam of Shiites at its center. They say the street lights in the poster look like the legs of a spider spread over the city from the center where the shrine is located.
“She has received the best actress award of Cannes Film Festival for playing in a completely anti-Iranian, anti-religious film full of insults to Iranians’ religious beliefs including [belief] in Imam Reza,” one of her critics tweeted.
“You are happy about Amir-Ebrahimi’s award? Never mind the anti-religious character of the Holy Spider, how do you justify its anti-Iranian approach?” Danial Memar, editor-in-chief of Tehran municipality’s Hamshahri newspaper, told the actress admirers in Iran in a tweet. “You are such traitors to your homeland,” he added.
Amir-Ebrahimi, 41, became a victim of a smear campaign when she was a young actress in her twenties. A sex tape leaked online in 2006 ended her carrier in a country where religious and traditional prejudices are very strong. She has lived in France since the incident.
“This film is about women, it's about their bodies, it's a movie full of faces, hair, hands, feet, breasts, sex -- everything that is impossible to show in Iran," Ebrahimi told the audience at the awards ceremony.
"I have come a long way to be on this stage tonight. It was not an easy story," she said. "It was humiliation but there was cinema, it was solitude but there was cinema, it was darkness but there was cinema. Now I'm standing in front of you on a night of joy."
The film had to be shot in Jordan as Iranian authorities did not allow Abbasi to make the film at home. There film is extremely unlikely to receive screening permission in Iran.
The article published on Sunday and credited to the “International Desk” of the website claims it obtained “internal information” about these individuals who are “experts in military, security, cyber and technology fields of the Zionist regime.” The website also claims that the individuals were involved in “sabotage in Islamic countries and assassination of resistance activists.”
The artice is headlined, "Zionists who have to live in hiding".
It goes on to say that “The rest of the information includes very precise details about their family members, photos and videos, home and work addresses, and their commuting routes, as well as telephone numbers…”
However, the information published about each person is very brief and can be easily obtained from public sources.
The first person on the list is retired Major General of the Israeli Defense Forces, Amos Malka (1972-2002), who was director of IDF Intelligence and commander of ground forces during his military career.
Fars used a couple of publicly available photos of Malka, who for the past 20 years has been a successful businessman. He is currently involved with several companies as partner or chairman of the board, including Windare Ventures, Aitech, supplying rugged computer systems, and co-founder of Spire Security Solutions, a security and intelligence company.
Amir Levinthal is another individual named by Fars, who is the founder of Cylus, a rail cybersecurity company. He is also a former military officer and Fars says he served in IDF intelligence.
The article also profiles Gal Genut, CEO of cyber intelligence company Analiza, who served as director of Unit 8200 of the Israeli Intelligence Corps. Fars says that Genut is also involved in IntSights and says that both companies are contractors for the Israeli government and its intelligence service the Mossad.
Next, the Revolutionary Guard’s mouthpiece profiles Inbal Arieli, as one of 100 most influential persons “in new technologies of the temporary Zionist regime and one of the most well-known Zionist job creators.” It adds that Arieli was also a part of Unit 8200 and “believes that special unit operational tactics should be also used in the business world.”
Amit Meltzer is another Israeli cyber specialist Fars mentions and says he is an expert in cyber defense technologies.
The Fars article comes at a time when the Islamic Republic seems exposed and vulnerable to Israeli operations inside the country. Numerous acts of sabotage and assassination have occurred in Iran since July 2020. Sensitive nuclear, military and economic targets have been hit, although Israel has never confirmed or denied involvement.
The last incident occurred on May 22, when an operative of the Revolutionary Guard Qods (Quds) Force was gunned down outside his home in Tehran in broad daylight. A security source later told Iran International that the IRGC colonel Hssan Sayyad-Khodaei was responsible for recruiting operatives for terror attacks against Israelis.
Iranian officials, shaken by the incident, vowed revenge for the killing as reports said Israel had privately told the United States that it had eliminated the alleged terror organizer.
In a commentary entitled "Double Standards," the Iranian Diplomacy website, asked whether the new rhetoric by Amir-Abdollahian about obstacles to the revival of the Iran nuclear deal, was tailored solely for listeners in the annual meeting in Davos or it was the outcome of his experiences as foreign minister during the past 9 months.
Amir-Abdollahian, during a conversation with journalist Farid Zakaria in the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on May 26, said that hardliners in both Iran and the United States were working against the revival of the JCPOA. He particularly pointed out opposition by hardliners in the Iranian parliament (Majles).
According to Iran diplomacy, Amir-Abdollahian's statement about the Iranian parliament exerting pressure on the government to reject the JCPOA "could mean that the Iranian foreign Minister has two different views about the same issue." The website asked why he did not say the same thing to Iranian media.
However, neither Amir-Abdollahian nor Zakaria mentioned that hardliners are in control of Iran's negotiating team. Chief negotiator Ali Bagheri-Kani is known for his opposition to the JCPOA since the time he served in the team under ultraconservative negotiator Saeed Jalili in early 2010s. He continued to oppose an agreement with the United States until his appointment as chief negotiator by Iran's new government in 2021.
The Iranian foreign minister’s rhetoric about hardliners both in Iran and the United States was also not very different from his predecessor, Javad Zarif’s oft used line of argument, to show that his positions were moderate and those critical of Iran in the West were hardliners.
Meanwhile, the Iranian foreign minister for the first time "strongly condemned the war in Ukraine" without mentioning Russia's role. The Iran diplomacy wrote, "Undoubtedly, the foreign ministry is not courageous enough to make the same statement in Iran." The website also explained that the condemning the war in Ukraine could have been an indirect attack on Russia for its negative role in the talks and taking oil market share from Iran by selling its oil cheaper to China.
However, the website noted that although in many cases, Amir-Abdollahian's statements on Iran's foreign policy followed the party line, in some instances it appeared he got too close to Tehran's red lines.
Amir-Abdollahian, who spoke in Persian throughout the 35-minute conversation looked calmer and on top of the subject matter in most parts of the conversation, unlike his previous international appearances. He sounded like a very good speaker, at least in Persian. His points of weakness were revealed only when he answered questions on relations with Saudi Arabia, which later met with an indirect denial by his Saudi counterpart.
His accusation that the United States did not fight terrorism in Afghanistan and Syria were also not the highlight of this conversation as they were similar to Iranian officials' run-off-the-mill answers to such questions and were devoid of any insight.
Similarly, his statement that "We have intelligence the Zionists have taken US foreign policy hostage," was a repetition of Tehran's ragged argument about the issue throughout the past four decades.