Dissident directors hold up ‘mirror’ to Iranian women’s desire

This combination of file photos created on February 1, 2024 shows Iranian actress Maryam Moghaddam (L) and Iranian film director Behtash Sanaeeha (R), both posing during the 'Berlinale Summer Special' film festival in Berlin, Germany on June 18, 2021. (AFP)
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Updated 17 February 2024
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Dissident directors hold up ‘mirror’ to Iranian women’s desire

  • Moghaddam, 52, said their crime was, with the film, “crossing so many red lines which have been forbidden in Iran for 45 years”

BERLIN: Two Iranian directors said they have been barred from traveling to the Berlin film festival for their new movie’s premiere Friday for breaking one of their country’s biggest taboos: showing a woman pursuing a “normal life.”
Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha told AFP from Tehran that they knew they were playing with fire with “My Favourite Cake,” one of 20 films vying for the Golden Bear top prize.
Nevertheless, the crackdown came as a shock last autumn.
“They raided our editor’s place and took all the hard drives and computers of the project,” Sanaeeha, 43, said by video link.
“Then when we wanted to leave Tehran to go to Paris to finish the post-production, at the airport they took our passports.”
Moghaddam, 52, said their crime was, with the film, “crossing so many red lines which have been forbidden in Iran for 45 years.”
“It’s about the woman living her life, who wants to have a normal life, which is forbidden for women in Iran.”

The bittersweet story spotlights 70-year-old Mahin, a retired nurse played by acclaimed culture journalist Lily Farhadpour.
After three decades on her own following her husband’s death, Mahin finds a man who catches her fancy while they are both dining alone at a pensioners’ restaurant.
They strike up a friendly rapport and are soon recalling their more permissive youth — before the 1979 Islamic Revolution — when drinking, dancing and “plunging necklines” were part of city life.
Mahin invites Faramarz to her home and, dodging the prying eyes of her neighbors, removes her hijab, pours two tall glasses of wine and pulls out her beloved “oldies” CDs.
“Showing a woman without her hijab is forbidden. But most women, even religious women, are without hijab at home,” Moghaddam said.
“Drinking alcohol or dancing or meeting a partner — everything happens in Iran, but inside the walls because it’s forbidden outside. We wanted to be dedicated to reality and show it.”

The scenes mark “a new thing for Iranian cinema,” she said, holding up a “mirror” to a way of life many still long for.
Sanaeeha noted that the case of Mahsa Amini, the young Iranian-Kurdish woman whose custody death sparked months of anti-government protests, came while the film was already in pre-production.
“We were depressed about the situation happening in our country,” Sanaeeha said.
“But we talked, all the crew, and we explained (to) them what we are doing in this film — it’s about women, it’s about life and it’s about freedom. So it was our duty to finish this film.”
In a harrowing scene, Mahin confronts officers from the Morality Police arresting young women for not properly covering their hair — the same offense that put Amini in their crosshairs.
“You’d kill her over a few strands of hair,” Mahin screams.
The late-in-life love story of Mahin and Faramarz feels revolutionary as they escape their deeply conservative society’s strictures — at least for one night.
“We wanted to tell a deeper story about life, about seizing the moment,” Moghaddam said.
The Berlin film festival, which has long championed Iran’s embattled directors, urged authorities to allow the filmmakers to travel. As has become customary, it will leave two seats empty for them at the premiere.
Farhadpour held up a picture of the two directors after a warmly received press preview and condemned their absence in Berlin.
“This is an absolutely impossible way of behaving on the part of the Iranian government,” she said.
Moghaddam and Sanaeeha’s previous film “Ballad of a White Cow,” a drama about the death penalty, premiered at the 2021 Berlinale, as the event is known.
They said it has since been banned in Iran but is available for downloads on European and US platforms.
“With the Internet, you cannot censor the art so the film will come out” at home and abroad, Sanaeeh said.
However, the stakes for independent filmmakers remain daunting.
“You have to risk your career, your income, your everything,” Moghaddam said.
 

 


Jordan-Syria coordination council will strengthen ties, King Abdullah says

Updated 4 sec ago
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Jordan-Syria coordination council will strengthen ties, King Abdullah says

  • Nations’ leaders speak after deal signed to establish new body
  • Ahmed Al-Sharaa praises Jordan’s support for Syria

LONDON: King Abdullah II of Jordan and Syrian Arab Republic interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa spoke on Thursday about bilateral relations and regional developments.

The telephone conversation came after the two countries this week signed an agreement to establish the Higher Coordination Council, which aims to strengthen collaboration in key sectors such as water, energy and trade.

The king said the new body would institutionalize cooperation and maximize opportunities for both nations. He also reiterated his support for Syrians and the country’s security, stability and territorial integrity, the Jordan News Agency reported.

Al-Sharaa praised Jordan’s support for enhancing Syria’s international presence after both the EU and US this month announced the lifting of Assad-era sanctions on the country.

The two leaders also emphasized the need to increase efforts to stabilize southern Syria and improve border security.


Sweden to charge militant over Jordanian pilot burnt to death in Syria: prosecutor

Updated 22 May 2025
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Sweden to charge militant over Jordanian pilot burnt to death in Syria: prosecutor

  • Prosecutors plan to charge the Swedish citizen with “serious war crimes and terrorist crimes in Syria“

STOCKHOLM: Prosecutors said Thursday they plan to indict a convicted Swedish militant for his suspected involvement in the 2014 capture of a Jordanian pilot in Syria and burning him to death in a cage.

Sweden’s Prosecution Authority said in a statement it planned to charge a 32-year-old Swedish citizen on May 27 with “serious war crimes and terrorist crimes in Syria.”

The man, Osama Krayem, has already been sentenced for his involvement in the 2015 attacks in Paris and the attacks in Brussels a year later.


Summer comes early for Iraq with 49 degrees Celsius in Basra

Updated 22 May 2025
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Summer comes early for Iraq with 49 degrees Celsius in Basra

  • In Iraq, summer temperatures often exceed 50 degrees Celsius, especially in July and August

BAGHDAD: Summer has come early for Iraq this year with temperatures hitting 49 degrees Celsius (topping 120 degrees Fahrenheit) in the southern city of Basra on Thursday, the national weather center said.

“It is the highest temperature recorded in Iraq this year,” weather center spokesperson Amer Al-Jabiri told AFP.

He said the early heat was in contrast to last year, when the temperature was “relatively good” in May and “it only began to rise in June.”

In Iraq, summer temperatures often exceed 50 degrees Celsius, especially in July and August, and sometimes reach these levels earlier.

On Sunday, two cadets died and others were admitted to hospital with heat stroke at a military academy in the southern province of Dhi Qar, authorities said.

The defense ministry said nine cadets “showed signs of fatigue and exhaustion due to sun exposure” while waiting to be assigned to battalions.

Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani ordered an investigation into the deaths of the two cadets.

Iraq is one of the five countries most impacted by some effects of climate change, according to the United Nations. It has also seen a prolonged drought and frequent dust storms.


Israel army issues evacuation warning for 14 areas of north Gaza

Updated 22 May 2025
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Israel army issues evacuation warning for 14 areas of north Gaza

  • The army told residents that it was operating with intense force

JERUSALEM: The Israeli army issued an evacuation warning on Thursday for 14 neighborhoods in the northern Gaza Strip, including parts of Beit Lahia and Jabalia.

The army told residents in an Arabic-language statement that it was “operating with intense force in your areas, as terrorist organizations continue their activities and operations” there.

A similar warning for parts of northern Gaza was issued on Wednesday evening in what the army said was a response to rocket fire.

It said that one “projectile that was identified crossing into Israel from the northern Gaza Strip was intercepted” by the air force.

It later announced three more launches from northern Gaza, but said the projectiles had fallen inside the Palestinian territory.

Israel has ramped up its Gaza operations in recent days in what it says is a renewed push to destroy Hamas.

The territory’s civil defense agency said Israeli attacks had killed at least 19 people on Thursday.


Turkiye’s Erdogan says Damascus must keep focused on Kurdish SDF deal

Updated 22 May 2025
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Turkiye’s Erdogan says Damascus must keep focused on Kurdish SDF deal

  • Ankara views the SDF and its factions as a terrorist group

ANKARA: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Syria’s government must keep focused on its deal with the Kurdish, US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) under which it is to integrate into the Syrian armed forces, pressing Damascus for its implementation.

Speaking to reporters on a flight from Budapest, he said Turkiye, Syria, Iraq and the United States had a committee to discuss the fate of Daesh militants in prison camps in northeast Syria, which have been run by the SDF for years.

Ankara views the SDF and its factions as a terrorist group.

“We are especially following the YPG issue very, very closely. It is important for the Damascus administration not to take its attention away from this issue,” his office on Thursday cited him as saying. The YPG militia spearheads the SDF.

He added that Iraq should focus on the issue of the camps, as most women and children at the Al-Hol camp there were from Iraq and Syria, and that Iraq should repatriate its nationals.