Iranian Actress Boycotting Oscars Over Trump’s Visa Ban

In what could mark the start of a worrying trend, just one day after President Donald Trump made good on his promise to curtail immigration from certain Muslim-majority nations, an actress from one of those countries has said that she will boycott the Oscars in protest. 

Taraneh Alidoosti, the Iranian star of Asghar Farhadi’s The Salesman, nominated for best foreign-language film, posted a tweet on Thursday declaring that Trump’s proposed visa ban for Iranians was “racist” and that in response, she won’t be attending the Feb. 26 Academy Awards.

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 pic.twitter.com/CW3EF6mupo

— Taraneh Alidoosti (@t_alidoosti) January 26, 2017

Neither Farhadi, who won the Oscar in 2012 for A Separation, nor his male lead, Shahab Hosseini, have spoken about whether they plan to attend the awards ceremony. 

Iran is joined by Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen on the list of countries whose citizens are expected to be temporarily banned from being issued new U.S. visas.  

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