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Shahram Rafizadeh

The day after more than 200 artists announced their support for the list of reformist ‎candidates for the 8th Majlis elections (to be held on March 14), the conservative media ‎began to publish news reports that some artists were withdrawing their support and ‎signatures from the reformist candidate lists. At the same time two TV and cinema actors ‎Bahareh Rahnama and Hamed Behdad disclaimed such events revealed the pressures to ‎which artists are subjected to in order to force them to withdraw their support for the ‎reformists. ‎

After the declaration of support for reformist candidates by actors of cinema, theater and ‎TV, websites close to the government and the Jebhe Motahed Osoolgaran (the right-wing ‎United Front of Ideologues) published reports that “artists had denied supporting” the ‎reformists, Manijeh Hekmat, a filmmaker and producer of the film Women’s Prison who ‎had put her office at the disposal of the elections headquarters of reformers’ coalition was ‎accused of forging the signatures. ‎

But Bahareh Rahnama, whom FARS state news agency had named as someone who had ‎denied supporting the reformers, published a letter yesterday to once again declare her ‎support for reformers and to speak out about the pressures exerted on her by officials of ‎the state-run national radio and television network. ‎
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According to Bahareh Rahnama, this pressure came from the “bosses” in order to ‎‎“prevent her from making public statements about the elections”. In her letter, she writes ‎about the threat of being banned from acting for television as an instance of the kind of ‎threat that she received from the directors of the state-run national radio and television ‎network who wanted her to withdraw her signature from the list supporting the reformist ‎candidates. “I don’t believe that my vote which is a customary and religious requirement ‎for every Iranian Muslim should cost me my job,” she said.‎

Hamed Behdad, another actor involved in cinema and television, whose support for ‎reformers was also denied by pro-administration FARS news agency denied ever taking ‎back or withdrawing his signature of support and asserted in his letter, “As an Iranian ‎Muslim, I Hamed Behdad, declare my vote for the reformist coalition.” Pointing to the ‎displeasure of pro-government groups about the public expression of his vote for the ‎reformers, he added, “This is just one vote and no more, and I cast it as appreciation for ‎the blood of those martyrs who have died for this country.”‎
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Letter of support by 50 other artists ‎
In a related development, in addition to the 200 prominent actors and directors who have ‎already expressed their support for the reformers in the March 14th elections, 2 days ago ‎about 50 other artists - among them leading directors and actors in Iran - also declared ‎their support for the reformers in the upcoming elections. ‎

In a joint declaration these 200 artists announced that, “With full knowledge of the ‎disqualification of candidates, the narrow-mindedness, and the imposition of restrictions ‎on the extensive group of reformers in the country, we support the comprehensive ‎expansion of civil freedoms, cultural development, and the advancement of thought and ‎culture in the country so that we can together turn another memorable page in our ‎country’s history.” The artists also stressed in the statement, “Our vote is not a stamp of ‎approval on how the elections are being held, but a declaration of our loyalty to the ‎central cultural idea of reforms through which the future of the country will be shaped.”‎