Golshifteh poses naked
Golshifteh Farahani, a famous Iranian actress, who also played in Body of Lies with Leonardo DiCaprio and recently left Iran, has posed topless in an ad for Cesar Academy – roughly the French equivalent of the Academy Awards which has created quite a stir in Iran and more than 130,000 views on her youtube video.
The semi-official Iranian Fars News agency says “It was first assumed that this might be yet another plot by the enemy but the disaster dawned when she herself published her nude photo on her Facebook page. By doing so she has now diminished whatever popularity of her that had remained in Iran. It seems that her action is a short film and in line with the Western plots to challenge the Islamic Awakening movement that is sweeping the region.” In other words, Golshifteh can never go back to Iran and like many of us who have accepted a life of exile, she’ll have to remain outside of her home country until Iran is freed from the grip of today’s Islamic authorities.
I just finished reading the Persian BBC article which roughly translates into “Golshifteh and the Military Titanic of Iran.” The writer makes several good points about how the new generation of Iranians are fighting the Islamic regime not with guns or bullets as it happened in 1979, but with underground music, nudity, and dancing, things that are very much against the laws of the Islamic regime.
On her Facebook page some say that she has betrayed Iran and Islam by going topless. Others are supportive. Several Facebook pages have popped up and one carries a message under her name saying “We have to open our mind!”
Golshifteh’s nudity says as much about the Iranian government as our culture and society’s inability to accept a woman’s right to do as she pleases with her life and her body. Golshifteh is making a statement on behalf of all Iranian women who have been forced to wear a veil or a scarf since they have been children, many times against their own will. And it talks to women in Iran who still don’t have enough rights including getting a divorce or leaving a country without a man’s permission.
You go girl! We’re proud of you!
