Iranian filmmaker, Mahnaz Mohammadi, made headlines in India as she sent a chunk of her hair at the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFKK). The filmmaker was unable to travel to India for the film festival to receive the Spirit of Cinema award.
The award was initiated in 2021 to recognize filmmakers “whose passion for cinema is unflinchingly carried forward despite the adversities faced by them”.
Ms. Mohammadi, an open critic of the Iranian government, was unable to renew her passport which was designated to expire in March.
Athina Rachel Tsangari, a Greek filmmaker and jury member at IFKK received the award on behalf of Mohammadi at the film festival held in Thiruvananthapuram city of the southern Indian state of Kerala on December 9. The audience applauded as Tsangari held Mohammadi’s lock of hair.
In an email interview with BBC, Mohammadi stated, “Cut hair is the symbol of the tragedy that we face every day and every moment”. She added that she “could not stop crying” after seeing the audience’s reaction at the ceremony.
For months, women in Iran have been protesting against the strict hijab laws, which orders all women to wear a headscarf and loose-fitting clothes that conceal their body when in public.
The protests against hijab began in September after the death of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish woman hailing from the western city of Saqqez who went into a coma after being tackled by morality police in Tehran for violating the hijab law.
Iranian women have been burning their hijabs on bonfires and women from across the world have been sharing videos of cutting their hair themselves in revolt against the brutality of the morality police and harsh hijab laws.
Mohammadi expressed that the protests are an extension of Iranian women fighting for their right to live with freedom. She said, “The protesters have nothing to lose. They are fighting for their own lives because the totalitarian government has left them with no alternative.”
The 47-year-old filmmaker was born in Tehran and is known for raising her voice for women’s rights in Iran. Her debut, “Women Without Shadows”, a documentary on the lives of vagrant and disbanded women in state-run shelters has won numerous laurels at international film festivals. Her feature film, “Son Mother”, premiered at the 44th Toronto International Film Festival and was honored with the special jury award at the 14th Rome Film Festival.
Though in 2008, she was banned from traveling by the Iranian government for making a travelogue. The documentary was shot on a train between Tehran and Ankara, showing why Iranians chose to leave the country.
Mohammadi was never new to controversies. She was also arrested for demonstrating against the trial of women rights activists and putting a wreath on the grave of Neda Agha Sultan, a 26-year-old who was shot while protesting against the re-election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Mohammadi, in 2014, was sentenced to prison for five years “for running propaganda against the Iranian regime”. She said, “All my life was spent enduring restrictions.” She continued saying that Iranian men have benefited” from the country’s “patriarchal system” while women continue to “remain in bondage because of their gender”.
On behalf of Iranian women, Mohammadi expressed, the hijab is a “symbol of many discriminations” and was “forced on us at school at the age of seven and covered all my thoughts”.
The protests in Iran against the hijab laws have influenced debates in the Indian subcontinent after Muslim girls were barred from wearing hijabs in schools and colleges in the southern state of Karnataka. The barring was encountered in the Supreme Court though failed to land on a verdict on the issue in October.
Mohammadi answered, when asked to express her views about the current debates in India, “We should not be against the hijab. We are for the women to have the right to choose whether to wear the hijab.”
