A child is passed to safety from a window of Tehran's parliament building
This morning, terrorists launched coordinated attacks against Iran's parliament building and the Ayatollah Khomeini mausoleum in Tehran. It is being reported that at least 12 people died and 35 were injured. From the Daily Mail:
ISIS carries out its first strike in Iran: Burka-clad gunmen are shot dead after taking hostages at parliament as suicide bomber blows himself up at Ayatollah Khomeini's mausoleum
ISIS claimed its first attack in Iran after fighters stormed parliament and shrine
At least 12 people died and 35 were wounded in the assault, state media said
Four parliament attackers filmed themselves in the building with a dead body
'Female suicide bomber' detonated at shrine while another was shot dead
ISIS has claimed its first attack in Iran as at least 12 people were killed and 35 wounded in joint raids on parliament and Ayatollah Kohmeini's shrine on Wednesday.
The terror group says fighters armed with AK47s and pistols stormed parliament through the civilian entrance while disguising themselves as women by wearing burkas, shooting security guards before detonating a suicide bomb, killing at least five and wounding 25.
Meanwhile two more suicide bombers attacked a shrine to Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of modern-day Iran, as it was reported a woman blew herself up, killing at least two and injuring another 10.
Anti-terror police said they exchanged fire with militants in the northern part of parliament before a bomb detonated on the fourth floor.
Video purporting to be from inside the building showed a fighter armed with an AK47 moving between rooms as a dead body lay on the floor.
Security forces said a second attacker at the shrine had been shot dead after the first blew up, while another two people were arrested.
Tourists at the mausoleum had been locked inside to keep them safe.
State news channels sought to downplay the attacks, saying that parliament had resumed session shortly after the first reports of gunfire.
Other TV channels either stopped reporting on the attacks shortly after they began, or failed to mention them altogether.
The unusual attacks prompted the interior ministry to call for an urgent security meeting, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.
Iranian state media said police helicopters were circling over the parliament building and that all mobile phone lines from inside were disconnected.
The semi-official ISNA news agency said all entrance and exit gates at parliament were closed and that politicians and reporters had been ordered to stay inside the chamber, where a session had been in progress.
It quoted politician Elias Hazrati as saying the attackers were armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles.
It described the shrine attackers as 'terrorists' and said one carried out a suicide bombing, without providing further details.
The raids, the first in some time in Tehran, come during the holy month of Ramadan and shortly after President Hassan Rouhani was reelected.
Thomas Erdbrink, bureau chief for the New York Times, reports that the attacks will come as a personal embarrassment to Rouhani, who ran on his security record.
He also reports that the shrine is largely used by foreign tourists, and that security was lax when he visited last month.
The mausoleum is in southern Tehran, around 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the parliament building.
Shia Iran has been singled out as a target by Sunni jihadists, including the Islamic State group, but has largely escaped attacks within its urban centres. Iran provides key ground forces against IS and other rebel groups in Syria and Iraq.
The Kremlin said that an attack on two targets in Tehran by armed men underlined the need for countries to pool their efforts to fight against terrorism, something it said meant working closely with Muslim nations.
Donald Trump's first trip abroad yielded some astonishing pictures and videos today, among them, a video showing Trump and some of his cabinet members participating in (not just observing) a traditional "Ardha" (war) sword dance. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross are seen happily/grimly clutching swords while linking arms with the dancers. As far as one can tell, Trump doesn't link arms but spends a few seconds bouncing and jiving to the music with a goofy expression. You can't see it in the video but at one point he does hold a sword, pointing it downward. Steve Bannon stands around, looking uncomfortable. The outdoor pavilion appears to be filled almost exclusively with men, most of them robed. The regal Melania Trump and an unidentified (to me) American woman seem to be the only two females in the crowd. Both have their heads uncovered. By the way, President George Bush participated in a sword dance in Saudi Arabia. So did Prince Charles. As everyone knows, Middle-Eastern Arabs are notoriously racist. Perhaps this is why President Obama was never invited to participate. Or maybe they just didn't respect him. But that didn't stop Obama from bowing. An earlier video features Mr. and Mrs. Trump emerging from the plane and greeting the King and his entourage - with Trump not bowing and his wife wearing pants with uncovered hair. There are three ways to look at all of this. One is of free and civilized people holding their heads high while extending the hand of friendship to (sorry to say it) semi-barbarous exotics (I'm talking about the Trumps not Tillerson and Ross, obviously). It sounds silly, but that plane entrance reminded me of the scene in C.S. Lewis's The Horse and His Boy, where the free kings and queens of Narnia, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy stride confidently up the main thoroughfare of Tashbaan, the capital city of the cruel, quasi-Muslim Calormenes. Okay, that more than sounds silly. But still. The second way to look at it is naive and awkward westerners pretending to be best buddies with primitives in order to score political points at home, aid an alliance, negotiate a favorable oil deal or whatever. In Saudi Arabia, they do not only use swords for dancing. The third way to look at it is that it's necessary realpolitik. We're all grownups here, right? And the Iranians will get the message. Here is a short video of the dance, featuring Trump at the beginning and Tillerson/Ross at the end, as well as a video of the Trumps emerging from that plane. For good measure I've also included a clip from Lawrence of Arabia - "So long as the Arabs fight tribe against tribe, so long will they be a little people, a silly people, greedy, barbarous and cruel..." That's half-right, of course, though I'm not sure the tribe vs. tribe thing was the main problem.
The AFP Tweet reads, "Trump to Give Speech on Islam in Saudi Arabia: White House." Here's a blurb from the Independent:
Donald Trump will give a speech on combatting radical Islam to a group of Muslim leaders in Saudi Arabia during his first trip abroad as US President.
Mr Trump will speak to around 50 Muslim leaders and will take part in opening a centre there which is dedicated to promote moderate Islam, said national security adviser H R McMaster.
The President will “will deliver an inspiring but direct speech on the need to confront radical ideology and the president’s hopes for a peaceful vision of Islam to dominate across the world,” Mr McMaster said.
“The speech is intended to unite the broader Muslim world against common enemies of all civilization and to demonstrate America’s commitment to our Muslim partners,” Mr McMaster added.
Saudi Arabia will be the first country Mr Trump will visit since his Inauguration.
This Trump voter (and, I assume, millions of others) just cringed.
Ah, yes, opening up a "center" devoted to "moderate Islam" in, all of all places, Saudi Arabia.
Isn't that the country where if you mispronounce "Muhammad," they kill your whole family?
Dr. Shajul Islam is now soliciting funds "to buy gas masks"
A few days ago, I reported on Dr. Shajul Islam, the Syrian-based British doctor who had been the point man for describing the recent Syrian "chemical attack" and its aftermath to the Western media. Though virtually no major news outlets had mentioned it, Dr. Islam had spent time in a British prison on charges of aiding a Jihadi group, and was subsequently barred from practicing medicine in the UK. But Islam was now a sort of media darling, leading the campaign to urge the West to "care" and "do something" about alleged Assad atrocities in Northern Syria. (I should correct the record here on one thing. I reported that Islam had been accused of "aiding ISIS." He was actually formerly accused of collaborating with al-Qaeda or an affiliate of al-Qaeda. Later he would be sought for questioning on the whereabouts of ISIS member "Jihadi John.") The next day, Breitbart had an article that added some details to the story. Islam had been accused of collaborating in the kidnapping of two Western journalists in Northern Syria by Jihadists affiliated with al-Qaeda. The charges were dropped only after the two main witnesses - the journalists - failed to appear. Breitbart reports why they failed to appear. It turns out that one of them - British journalist John Cantile - had been kidnapped again, this time by ISIS. (He was kidnapped with U.S. journalist James Foley, who would later be beheaded in an ISIS propaganda video.) The other witness - Dutch journalist Jeroen Oerlemans - declined to testify for fear he would endanger Cantile's life. Oerlemans would later be shot dead by ISIS fighters while covering the war in Libya. Most ghoulish is Breitbart's reporting of Cantile's earlier testimony about encountering Dr. Islam, while being held captive.
“When he told me he was an NHS doctor, I thought it was weird,” Cantlie told the Daily Mail in 2012.
“This is a man who has taken an oath to save people and help them, and here he is walking around with a Kalashnikov and preaching Shariah law. There are not any doctors who I know that do that.
“He clearly believed in what he was doing but to follow something to that extreme is the disturbing thing. He was visibly upset when the execution [of two other hostages] was called off.”
Apparently, Dr. Islam's current stay in Syria is being funded to the tune of over £50,000, by a "charity" group - UK Action for Refugees.
Meanwhile, John Cantile is still in captivity, reportedly alive but forced to narrate and appear in ISIS propaganda videos. He has looked increasingly haggard and unhealthy and was last seen in a video that appears to have been made in the besieged city of Mosul.
Meanwhile, it is supporting and funding an expat Jihadi agent, complicit in kidnapping and murder.
Outside of a few "conservative" outlets, such as Breitbart, no one in the Western media has mentioned Shajul Islam's past or challenged his veracity. But, as we all know, military action has already been taken against Assad - action that appears to have been at least partly motivated by information provided by Dr. Islam and his associates.
Just because a claim is wreathed in propaganda from evil and dishonest men doesn't mean that it's necessarily false. But it is a good indication that it may not be true.
A palm frond lies drenched in blood, after a Muslim suicide bomber murdered at least 27 people during Palm Sunday Mass at St. George's Church in Tanta, Egypt
Today, at Palm Sunday Mass in Chicago, Catholic men, women and children held palm fronds to commemorate the entrance of our Lord into Jerusalem. Everyone was smiling and joyful in their Spring best. Easter was almost here.
But our priest suggested in his homily that when we choose to take the fronds, we "implicate" ourselves in Christ's program. The fronds indicate that we have chosen to follow Him, even, if need be, to the Cross.
A few hours before, in Egypt, a number of martyrs - our traditionalist priest called them that - followed the King of the Martyrs to the Cross and then followed Him to Heaven.
Many Christians in Egypt have complained that the government hasn't done enough to protect them. I'm sure that's true to some extent. But as the security camera video, below, shows, one of today's Muslim attackers was stopped by police at the entrance to his target, and so he detonated his bomb precisely at the security perimeter, killing 17 people. Once one has such a bomb - and it was hardly obvious on his person - it's hard to see how you can stop them from setting it off amidst innocents, even if you can effectively protect certain spaces.
Obviously, you have to stop them before they get to that point. We'll see if Egyptian president el-Sissi is any more effective at doing this now that he a friend in the White House.
Suicide bombers kill 44 at Palm Sunday services in Egypt
TANTA, Egypt (AP) - Suicide bombers struck hours apart at two Coptic churches in northern Egypt, killing 44 people and turning Palm Sunday services into scenes of horror and outrage at the government that led the president to call for a three-month state of emergency.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the violence, adding to fears that extremists are shifting their focus to civilians, especially Egypt's Christian minority.
The attacks in the northern cities of Tanta and Alexandria that also left 126 people wounded came at the start of Holy Week leading up to Easter, and just weeks before Pope Francis is due to visit.
Pope Tawadros II, the leader of the Coptic church who will meet with Francis on April 28-29, was in the Alexandra cathedral at the time of the bombing but was unhurt, the Interior Ministry said.
It was the single deadliest day for Christians in decades and the worst since a bombing at a Cairo church in December killed 30 people.
Late Sunday night, President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi called for a three-month state of emergency. According to Egypt's constitution, parliament must vote in favor of such a declaration - a virtual certainty since it is packed with supporters of the president. It cannot exceed six months without a referendum to extend it.
The army chief-turned-president also dispatched elite troops across the country to protect key installations and accused unidentified countries of fueling instability, saying that "Egyptians have foiled plots and efforts by countries and fascist, terrorist organizations that tried to control Egypt."
The attacks highlighted the difficulties facing el-Sissi's government in protecting Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt's population.
"Where is the government?" screamed an angry Maged Saleh, who rushed to the church in the Nile Delta city of Tanta where his mother escaped the carnage. "There is no government!"
The first bomb exploded inside St. George's Church in Tanta, killing at least 27 people and wounding 78, officials said, overturning pews, shattering windows and staining the whitewashed walls with blood.
Video from inside the church broadcast by CBC TV showed people gathered around what appeared to be lifeless, bloody bodies covered with papers. Several doors had been blown off. Women wailed outside.
"After the explosion, everything became dark from the smoke," said Edmond Edward, attending Mass with his brother, Emil, who suffered head wounds and leaned on him for support at a nearby hospital.
"There was a clear lapse in security, which must be tightened from now on to save lives," he told The Associated Press. The blast appeared to be centered near the altar, he said.
Susan Mikhail, whose apartment balcony across the street has a clear view of the church and its front yard, said the explosion violently shook her building.
"Deacons were the first to run out of the church. Many of them had blood on their white robes," she told the AP. The more seriously wounded then were carried out by other survivors and taken to hospitals in private cars, she said.
Hundreds of residents gathered in the area, and church members blocked people from entering the church as police cordoned off the area.
A few hours later, a suicide bomber rushed toward St. Mark's Cathedral in the coastal city of Alexandria, the historic seat of Christendom in Egypt, killing at least 17 people and wounding 48.
CCTV images showed a man with a blue sweater tied over his shoulders approaching the main gate to St. Mark's and then being turned away by security and directed toward a metal detector. He passed a female police officer talking to another woman, and entered a metal detector before an explosion engulfed the area.
The Health Ministry said six Muslims were among the dead in Alexandria.
Pope Tawadros II had held Palm Sunday services at the cathedral and the timing of the attack indicated the bomber had sought to assassinate him.
Pope Francis marked Palm Sunday in St. Peter's Square by expressing "deep condolences to my brother, Pope Tawadros II, the Coptic church and all of the dear Egyptian nation."
Magdy George Youssef, a deacon at St. George's, said the church was almost full when the blast occurred and threw him under a pew.
"All I could think of was to find my wife, and all I could see was smoke, blood and completely charred bodies," the distraught 58-year-old said. Youssef, who suffered only an injured ear, later found his wife at home, with burns to her face.
IS said in a statement that two Egyptian suicide bombers named Abu Ishaq al Masri and Abu al Baraa al Masri carried out the church attacks and vowed to continue attacks against Christians.
"What happened is a dangerous indicator that shows how easy it is to attack a large gathering of people in different places," said researcher Ishaq Ibrahim with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. "There is a complete government failure in taking the IS threat seriously."
El-Sissi said in a statement that Sunday's attacks would only strengthen the resolve of Egyptians against "evil forces." He held an emergency meeting of the National Defense Council, which includes the prime minister, the defense and interior ministers, the speaker of parliament and top army commanders and security chiefs.
Regional police chief Brig. Gen. Hossam Elddin Khalifa was fired over the Tanta bombing, with Maj. Gen. Tarek Hassouna replacing him, state-run newspaper al-Ahram reported.
President Donald Trump tweeted that he is "so sad to hear of the terrorist attack" against the U.S. ally but added that he has "great confidence" that el-Sissi "will handle the situation properly." The two leaders met at the White House on April 3.
Grand Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, head of Egypt's Al-Azhar - the leading center of learning in Sunni Islam - also condemned the attacks, calling them a "despicable terrorist bombing that targeted the lives of innocents."
Both Israel and the Islamic Hamas movement ruling neighboring Gaza condemned the bombings as well.
An Islamic State affiliate claimed the December bombing as well as a string of killings in the northern Sinai that forced hundreds of Christians to flee to safer areas. The militants recently vowed to step up attacks against Christians, whom they regard as infidels.
Egypt has struggled to combat a wave of Islamic militancy since the 2013 military overthrow of an elected Islamist president.
The Sinai-based IS affiliate has mainly attacked police and soldiers, but has also claimed bombings including the downing of a Russian passenger jetliner in the Sinai in 2015, which killed all 224 people aboard and devastated Egypt's tourism industry.
Egypt's Copts are one of the oldest Christian communities in the Middle East and have long complained of discrimination and that the government does not do enough to protect them. Security at churches is routinely increased around religious holidays.
The Copts largely supported the military overthrow of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, and incurred the wrath of many of his followers, who attacked churches and other Christian institutions.
While the Copts have stood steadfast alongside the government, an increase in attacks on Christians has tested that support.
Egyptian media had previously reported that the church in Tanta had been targeted before, with a bomb defused there in late March.
As night fell, hundreds of Christians, mostly clad in black, streamed to the church to offer their condolences. Scuffles broke out between the mourners and church volunteers guarding the church's doors as many pushed and shoved to get in.
Dr. Shajul Islam was charged with terrorism related offenses and stripped of his license to practice in the UK
The primary spokesman on the ground for the story that Syrian president Bashar Assad attacked his own citizens with chemical weapons - a doctor and British citizen named Shajul Islam - had been imprisoned in the UK in 2012-13, charged with aiding Syrian rebels in the kidnapping of Western journalists. After the charges were dropped due to the unexplained failure of the witnesses to appear in court, Islam was sought by British authorities for allegedly having information on the whereabouts of ISIS member "Jihadi John." Islam was later stripped of his authority to practice medicine in the UK by the General Medical Council. I added "BREAKING" to the post title because this information has gone generally unmentioned in current reporting by the media, even as Islam's interviews and tweets have served as one of the main sources for the story of the alleged chemical attack. However, Islam's purported links to al-Qaeda and ISIS, as well as those of at least two of his brothers were well-reported by the British media at the time. Here are a number of stories on the attack from the New York Post, the Daily Mirror and the Daily Telegraph, featuring Dr. Islam as one of the primary sources (and in one case, the only primary source). None of them reference his past:
And here are some of Islam's recent tweets that have been prominently featured in those accounts. He currently has 10.2k followers, including many news organizations.
But the possible links of Islam and his family to "Jihadi John" were written about in August, 2014. Here are three articles from the Daily Mail, the Telegraph and Breitbart:
Whatever you think about what actually happened a few days ago in Northern Syria, the scene of an alleged gas attack that has alternately been described as featuring chlorine gas, nerve gas and sarin, it is notable that Shajul Islam has turned up right in the middle of it. From the Daily Mail, last July:
'Russia airstrikes are killing women and children… but MISSING ISIS': Struck off Brit NHS doctor accused of kidnapping Western hostages is treating bomb victims in Syria
Shajul Islam, who was arrested for kidnapping journalists is back in Syria
The NHS doctor and his brother were released after the case collapsed
He spoke to US journalist in Idlib, northwest Syria about constant airstrikes
Said there is a serious shortage of doctors and hospitals are bombed daily
A British doctor struck off by the NHS who was accused of kidnapping Western journalists has fled to Syria and is treating bomb victims, including jihadis.
Shajul Islam was arrested and charged with kidnapping two journalists in 2012 but was released after the trial collapsed when neither of the prosecution's witnesses were able to give evidence.
Dr Islam had always protested his innocence, saying he went to Syria to use his medical skills to treat victims of the civil war.
Now he has appeared in a video filmed in Idlib, in northern Syria, where he claims to be providing medical help to the victims of Syrian and Russian airstrikes.
Islam, from East London, who qualified at the University of London and worked as a doctor at St Bart's hospital, is currently removed from the medical register after a fitness to practise hearing at the General Medical Council in March.
After the criminal case against him collapsed, and he was found not guilty, he faced close monitoring by the security services.
The video published on YouTube yesterday for citizen journalist site On the Ground News, shows Islam wearing hospital scrubs and a stethoscope.
He tells American journalist Bilal Abdul Kareem that he is one of very few foreign doctors treating civilians injured in air strikes in north Syria.
Asked why he has come to Syria, Islam replies: 'I'm a doctor. There's a serious shortage of doctors. Anyone who is a doctor needs to be here. I don't understand why anyone who is sitting in England or Europe or America isn't here.'
According to a GMC report, a secret tribunal panel heard the disciplinary case against Islam in March this year and banned him for misconduct. The hearing was held in private so the details of the misconduct are not publically known. Islam told Kareem that the situation in Syria was 'crazy'.
'You can't imagine the number of casualties and we don't have enough doctors to look after them,' he said.
'From my perspective 80 per cent of the victims are women and children. The air strikes are not hitting terrorists they are hitting innocent civilians. Imagine you are sleeping at home with your family and you are hit by an airstrike.
'Whole families are being wiped out while they are sleeping. We are seeing on a daily basis 10, 20, 30 people being killed by these air strikes. I want you to picture this: your family, your loved ones, your wife being killed.'
Islam blamed the Syrian and Russian governments for the deaths, adding: 'They are killing civilians, the Syrian government, the Russian and any other government that is working with them is aiding in killing civilians here.'
He said that he was based close to Idlib where the rebel alliance and some jihadi groups are holding out against a joint Syrian and Russian bombardment.
Islam described how air strikes had recently destroyed the main hospital in Idlib had been destroyed: 'The main hospital was hit and taken out of action, including the CT scan and the intensive care unit. ....serious trauma patients requiring CT scan have to travel a further hour away.'
He said that for many of his patients their injuries were so serious there is nothing the doctors can do for them.
Asked what was the emotional toll on him he told the journalist: 'Of course we are human beings and it is very difficult to deal with but we have no choice because we are limited in numbers of staff. We have to function 24/7 - it's not a shift thing.
'We stay in the hospital 24 hours for four days at a time and I have to be ready to respond to patients at any time from the air strikes,' he said.
UN officials reported that Idlib's national hospital was targeted by an airstrike on May 30, killing two dozen people including children.
Airstrikes on the city and the surrounding area including Binnesh and Jisr al-shoughour, which was taken by Al-Qaeda linked Jabhat al-Nusra have intensified with reports of entire families being wiped out.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has documented several air raids across the province in the past week - in one instance killing eight people, who were mostly women and children.
At the time of his 2012 prosecution Shajul Islam, then 28, and a second man, Jubayer Chowdhury, then 24, were the only alleged British jihadists charged with kidnapping Westerners in Syria.
The pair — held in high security Belmarsh prison — walked free from court after all charges were dropped.
At the start of the hearing in November 2013, prosecutor Mark Dennis QC told the court that all evidence against the brothers rested on the two victims, who were unable to be called, and therefore could not proceed with the case.
A verdict of not guilty was recorded for the charge of kidnapping.
Media reports later suggested Islam may have held the key to the then unknown identity of Jihadi John, who was later unmasked as Mohammed Emwazi.
Asghar Farhadi, the Iranian director of "The Salesman" - nominated for an Oscar in the best foreign-language film category - won't be attending the Oscar ceremony. He decided not to come to the United States in order to protest President Donald Trump's executive order on travel. And along with the five other director nominees, he decried the growing "climate of fanaticism" in the United States. For this, he has won more international plaudits, adding to his fame and mystique as perhaps Iran's best known film director. Here's another Iranian who won't be attending the Oscars: Her name is Zeinab Sekaanvand and she is scheduled to be hanged. A child bride, she was convicted of stabbing her husband to death. She claimed he beat and abused her, that her complaints to the police were ignored, that her husband rejected her requests for divorce and that she was subsequently disowned by her conservative family. After being arrested she was tortured by police officers. She confessed to the killing without benefit of a lawyer. Later, she retracted her confession and claimed that her husband's brother had committed the crime, asking her to take the blame for it and promising to pardon her for it if she did - a practice permissible under Iranian law. While on death row, Sekaanvand married a fellow prisoner and became pregnant. After her cellmate was taken away for execution, her baby was stillborn, apparently having died from shock. Zeinab Sekaanvand's case has become somewhat of a cause celebre in the international human rights community. That might save her, although judging from recent history, it probably won't. Iran now leads the world in executions per capita. One thousand people were executed last year. Since the 1979 Revolution tens of thousands have been executed, many thousands of them political opponents, religious minorities or people running afoul of sharia law penalties for adultery, homosexuality, blasphemy and so on. It is estimated that 70 women have been stoned to death. They won't be attending the Oscars. 4,000 homosexuals have been killed, in many cases publicly hanged. They won't be attending the Oscars. 5,000 political prisoners - mainly leftists and communists - were executed in a five month period during 1988, a ferocious and massive purge which the government still denies ever existed. They won't be attending the Oscars. 200 Bahais have been killed. They won't be attending. Many jews, scientists and government officials have been convicted of "espionage" and executed after dubious trials. They won't be attending either. But I want to return to Asghar Farhadi. Here he is posing with the Oscar for best Foreign Film in 2012.
Farhadi is a sort of "hip" director. You can read long intellectual analyses of his work in cinema journals. Some of his films have been interpreted as veiled criticisms of Iranian government or society, but he also appears to have enough support within government circles to have furthered and protected his career and person. He has become wealthy and famous, and he travels abroad regularly, hobnobbing with the likes of Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem. Other Iranian directors have been jailed or been banned from filmmaking due to alleged dissident activities. But Asghar Farhadi has always kept his nose clean. As far as I know, he has never explicitly condemned his country's human rights record nor lobbied for those imprisoned or on death row. The name Zeinab Sekaanvand has never publicly passed his well-coiffed lips. When Sekaanvand is hanged, what suit will he be wearing?
