Top actress vows not to act again in Iran after protest crackdown

2026-02-03 - 16:38

A leading Iranian actress who has acted in dozens of films over a two-decade career says she will never perform in the country again after a deadly crackdown on protests. Elnaz Shakerdoust said in a post on Instagram late Monday that she believed tens of thousands of people had been killed in the crackdown and that Iran’s soil now “smelled of blood”. Her statement coincided with the start of Iran’s main annual film festival the Fajr Film Festival in Tehran which Shakerdoust said she would be boycotting. “I am in mourning for my dear ones; what festival, what celebration can there be? I will participate in no celebration, and I will never again play any role on this soil that smells of blood,” she posted. Shakerdoust said in