Iran says actresses without hijab must return wages

Iranian actresses who do not wear the hijab will be forced to return their earnings or leave the industry, the government said on Sunday, in the latest measure restricting women's freedoms in the country.

“Actors or agents who break the law before the completion of a film must return the salary they received from that project to compensate producer's losses,” an official from the Ministry of Guidance said in an interview with the Irna state news outlet.

Women will be “forced to co-operate” or leave the industry, said Ruhollah Sohrabi, director general of the ministry's organisation for film production and screening supervision.

Tehran has introduced an array of new rules on women who choose to defy Iran's strict dress code. Women have already been barred from university and handed harsh punishments for refusing to wear the hijab, including prison sentences.

It is not the first time Mr Sohrabi has made comments over the mandatory hijab.

Last month, he said women who appear in public without the hijab are banned from appearing on screen.

Women have come under heightened surveillance in the aftermath of Iran's nationwide protests last autumn, which spread to every province and posed the biggest threat to the regime in decades.

Some 500 people were killed by security forces, and several people were executed for joining the movement, accused of murdering security forces and co-operating with Western powers which Iran says were behind the rallies.

The protests erupted after the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody, who detained her for allegedly wearing her hijab too loosely.

Her death triggered widespread fury against Tehran, which has imposed strict rules on women for decades, including a ban on married women travelling abroad without their husband's consent.

In July, an actress was handed a two-year suspended jail sentence for appearing in public without the hijab.

Afsaneh Bayegan was also banned from leaving the country and must attend weekly therapy sessions for an “anti-family personality.”

She was detained after attending a movie premiere without a hijab.

Women are also banned from singing in public and riding a bicycle.

Despite an increase in morality police patrols, many women continue to venture out in public without the hijab in an act of defiance.

Conflict, drought, famine

Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

Band Aid

Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.

The burning issue

The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.

Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on

Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins

Read part one: how cars came to the UAE

The burning issue

Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on

Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins

Read part two: how climate change drove the race for an alternative

WITHIN%20SAND

%3Cp%3EDirector%3A%20Moe%20Alatawi%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EStarring%3A%20Ra%E2%80%99ed%20Alshammari%2C%20Adwa%20Fahd%2C%20Muhand%20Alsaleh%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3ERating%3A%203%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A