This star of an Oscar-nominated film is boycotting the Academy Awards over Trump's immigration policy
LatestActress Taraneh Alidoosti may not be a household name in the United States, but in her native Iran, she’s about as big as it gets: A multi-award winning actress considered one of the nation’s best in the past decade. Think of her as Iran’s Meryl Streep. And like Meryl, Alidoosti is not taking President Donald Trump’s ongoing attacks on immigrants, minorities, and at-risk communities sitting down—even if that means skipping this year’s Academy Awards, where the Iranian film The Salesman, in which she stars, has been nominated for Best Foreign Language Picture.
On Thursday morning, Alidoosti announced she would boycott the upcoming Oscars ceremony, scheduled for February 26, explaining that Trump’s recently signed anti-immigration policy “is racist.”
“Whether this will include a cultural event or not,” she continued, “I won’t attend the #AcademyAwards 2017 in protest.”
Trump’s executive orders include provisions to ban visas for nationals entering the United States from seven predominantly Muslim countries, including Iran.
On Twitter, Alidoosti’s announcement garnered positive reactions from her followers. However, several fans pointed out that boycotting the Oscars potentially robbed the star of an opportunity to speak about the issue from the award show stage.
Last Spiring, Alidoosti generated controversy in Iran while promoting The Salesman, when it was revealed she had a tattoo of the “Women Power” symbol on her forearm. In response, Alidoosti tweeted an unambiguous reply to those who criticized her public display of feminism.
Alidoosti is the first star to announce an Oscars boycott over Trump for the coming awards ceremony. Last year, a number of stars, including Jada Pinkett Smith and Spike Lee, boycotted the awards over its lack of diversity. In response, then-candidate Trump told Fox News that “it would certainly be nice if everybody could be represented properly. And hopefully that’s the case, but perhaps it’s not the case.”
Note: The headline of this story originally said that Alidoosti had been nominated for an Oscar. In fact, the film she stars in has been nominated.