Iranian filmmaker Jaafar Panahi says he plans to return to his native Iran after Oscar season, despite the threat of imprisonment following a government crackdown on anti-government protests in the country that killed thousands.
The Oscar-nominated director is abroad promoting his latest film. It was just an accident. In the year In December 2025, he was sentenced in absentia to one year in prison for “propaganda activities” against the country. Reports.
“I have been out of Iran for some time because of the Oscar campaign for this film, but as I said earlier, I will return to Iran as soon as the campaign is over,” Panahi said Thursday. Interview with Radio Atlantic.
Panahi’s lawyer, Mostafa Neely, said in handing down the sentence that it includes a two-year ban on leaving Iran and a ban on membership of any political or social group. He said he would appeal.
Panahi was one of 17 Iranian activists, artists, lawyers and journalists who signed A. press release Shared on X Earlier this year, the Islamic Republic of Iran expressed widespread protests against the regime.
“The great civil protest movement of the people of Iran, taking the streets, is declaring the national desire to remove the illegal regime of the Islamic Republic,” reads a joint statement on January 2. Narjes Mohammed 2023 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate currently in prison in Iran.
“We stand with the people to reclaim the dignity of life, liberty, justice, human dignity and the sovereignty of our own destiny,” the statement said.
(UGC/Associated Press)
Panahi 2025 movie It was just an accident. which was Filmed secretly in Iran without government permission He received two Oscar nominations Best International Feature Film and Best Original Screenplay. The 98th Academy Awards will be held on March 15.
Last year the film won of Palm d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. It also won Best Director, Original Screenplay and Best International Feature Gotham Awards.
The story is based on the experiences of Panahi, who was imprisoned twice for anti-government propaganda, and the people he met in Tehran’s Evin Prison.
17:53Jafar Panahi was inspired by the political prisoners of Tehran.
Last year, Iranian director Jafar Panahi won the Palme d’Or at Cannes for his unusual film, which was shot secretly in Tehran because of the risk of serious injury. Jafar has been in jail twice for protesting the arrest of “anti-government propaganda” and other filmmakers. At the Toronto International Film Festival in September, he joined Tom Power to talk about how his two experiences in Tehran’s Evin prison were a disaster.
Drainage He told CBC News. When he was filming in September It was just an accident. In Iran, where he might suffer, he doesn’t think of himself as a political filmmaker, but as a “socially engaged filmmaker.”
Freelance journalists Mehdi Mahmoudian.Panahi’s co-author on It was just an accident. And Goodbye Rabbi They were among those arrested in Iran after signing the same letter.
Panahi told The Atlantic that they were exchanging messages. Mahmoudian – who met both of them when they were arrested in 2022 – until shortly before Mahmoudian was arrested on January 31.
Panahi said Mahmoudian’s family only heard from him several days after his arrest.
“He only had a minute to say he was alive and well and he was arrested, then the phone was hung up.”
Mahmoudian and Rabbani are former political prisoners. Repeatedly targeted According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) by Iranian authorities for their work.
Rabbani of the Iranian Center for Human Rights said. On February 5, she began a hunger strike to protest her continued detention press release Tuesday.
Recent reports of prison abuse
On Wednesday, the Norwegian Nobel Committee called for his immediate release Mohammadi“He is deeply saddened by credible reports of brutal detention, physical abuse and life-threatening abuse against her.
The committee was informed that during her arrest in December, Mohammadi was beaten and continued to be abused.
This statement comes after Iran sentenced a 53-year-old man to more than seven years in prison. Neely, her lawyer, argued for propaganda and a two-year travel ban plus 1½ years for “collecting and cooperating”.
The committee mentioned Witnesses and corroborated testimony from her family say that the security forces formed a “cave” around Mohammadi and repeatedly beat her with sticks and clubs. She was dragged to the ground by her hair, they said, “tearing off part of her head and leaving an open wound.”
Witnesses reported that Mohammadi was repeatedly struck in the genitals and pelvis, leaving her unable to sit or move without excruciating pain.
The children of imprisoned Iranian women’s rights activist Narges Mohammadi received the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf. He read a letter from Muhammeddi, which she sneaked out of prison, urging the regime to continue the protest.
“She continues to be denied adequate and continuous medical care while being subjected to intense scrutiny and intimidation,” the committee chairman said. Jørgen Watne Frydnes said By A press release.
“She fainted many times, suffered from dangerous high blood pressure and was denied the necessary follow-up for suspected breast lumps.”
In the year Supporters had warned for months before her arrest that she could return to prison in December 2024 after complaining about medical issues.
The death toll of civil unrest is rising.
The death toll from Iran’s nationwide protests last month has risen to more than 7,000, with many more still dead, activists said Thursday.
The rising death toll adds to the overall tension Iran faces both internally and externally as it tries to negotiate with the United States over its nuclear program.
in the Latest report On Thursday, the US-based Human Rights Watch News Agency (HRANA) said at least 7,005 people had died and an additional 11,730 cases were under investigation. The agency is correct. The Associated Press says It relies on a network of activists to count deaths from previous rounds of unrest in Iran and to confirm deaths in Iran.
HRANA recorded the number of civilian casualties at 25,845, while 53,166 people were arrested.
As a doctor describes treating patients in Iran amid the regime’s crackdown on nationwide protests, he told CBC’s Margaret Evans the scenes were ‘horrendous’ – details obscured by the country’s government-imposed internet blackout. (Note: This video has been edited to remove information identifying a confidential source.)
Of the total number of those killed, HRANA classified 6,506 as “opponents”, including 219 children under the age of 18.
Harana said 214 of those killed were members of the military or government forces, while 66 were registered as non-opposition civilians.
The rising death toll comes as the agency continues to sift through information as it has struggled to communicate with those inside the Islamic Republic.
The Iranian government released a death toll on January 21, saying 3,117 people had been killed. Iran’s theocracy has previously underestimated or underreported the death toll from violence.