Taraneh Alidoosti boycotts the Oscars to protest Trump’s Muslim visa ban
The Salesman has been nominated in the “Best Foreign Film” category
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The Salesman star and leading Iranian actress Taraneh Alidoosti announced today that she will boycott the Academy Awards to protest President Trump’s proposed visa ban for refugees.
The movie has been nominated in the "Best Foreign Film” category, and the film’s director, Asghar Farhadi, became the first Iranian director to win an Oscar in 2012 for the film A Separation.
But, regardless of the film’s accolades, Alidoosti will not attend the Academy Awards. She tweeted that, “Trump's visa ban for Iranians is racist. Whether this will include a cultural event or not, I won't attend the #AcademyAwards 2017 in protest.”
According to a draft executive order obtained by CNN, Trump is planning to place a ban on refugees for up to four months and to restrict people from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, or Yemen from entering the country for 30 days. The order is consistent with his campaign promise to execute a “Muslim ban”, and has prompted much criticism.
What’s more, this is not the first time that The Oscars have sparked conversation about racial politics. Last year, both Jada Pinkett-Smith and Spike Lee boycotted the Oscars ceremony to protest the fact that for the second year in a row, all 20 nominees in the four acting categories were white. The hashtag #OscarsSoWhite trended on Twitter as people critiqued the lack of diversity.