Iran’s Khaneh Cinema (House of Cinema) has formed a committee to look into what’s happened to members of the Iranian film community who have been arrested.
Farhad Towhidi, the deputy head of Khaneh Cinema, told Shargh news daily: “We have been wrestling with these issues for over a year and we will make every effort to resolve them through legal channels.”
Towhidi has also told the Iranian Labour News Agency (ILNA) that the House of Cinema has tried to follow up on the situation of its detained members but so far it has received no clear information about the reasons for their arrest or the nature of any charges.
Actresses Marzieh Vafamehr and Pegah Ahangarani were arrested within the past two weeks on unspecified charges. Documentary filmmaker Mahnaz Mohammadi, also a women’s rights activist, was arrested in June by Iranian security forces.
Last year, directors Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof were arrested and sentenced to severe prison terms.
Mohammadi had also been arrested in August 2009, together with Panahi and several other Iranian filmmakers, as they attended a ceremony for the victims of the crackdown on post-election protests at the Tehran cemetery Behesht-e Zahra.
