Cinema Etemad, Tina Jalali, “Whoever commits intentional or unintentional murder, no one can deprive him of his job. How can someone be punished administratively, not judicially, to the extent of being banned from work for something like not wearing a veil, which is very simple and trivial in the law?” can i do “Being banned from work is a very severe punishment that the court should determine, not the desk clerks.”
These sentences are a part of Abbas Abdi’s speech about artists being banned from working. Very shocking and painful points that bring up this question in the mind, so how come within the last one or two years, they issued judgments to artists and took away their work and made them unemployed and housebound? What artists are those? All the names and celebrities who raised the name of Iran among the countries of the world with their presence in international forums, why should they be removed from the cinema screen?
Now, with the coming of the government of Dr. Mezikian, the situation is supposed to change and this big challenge will be removed and space will be provided for the presence of all artists together through dialogue.
Read our interview with Abbas Abdi about this issue.
If you agree, let’s start the discussion with the word prohibited, does this word apply mostly to artists or is it also in other jobs?
According to the constitution, it is the right of every citizen to choose any job that is not against the law, and no one can prevent them except according to the court order, which is a matter of separation. The court may prohibit someone from working for a limited period of time, so there is no way to ban artists from the ministry of guidance and elsewhere, but they do other ways that are circumventing the law.
Methods such as giving permission to a movie and if someone is in that movie, they don’t give the permission and make it conditional, these are all the interferences that take place in the rights of citizens and were found in abundance in the Ministry of Guidance during Mr. Raisi’s tenure and have caused a lot of expenses for the country.
In continuation of your speech, tell me, on what basis can actors and artists be banned from their jobs? I want to know how serious a crime it should be if something like this happens, and can artists be banned from their work for not wearing a veil?
Prohibition must be through the court, it is appealed, it goes to the Supreme Court, it is re-trialed, there are all kinds of ways for a ruling to be violated, the ruling must be justified, in the administrative system where an employee cannot sit for himself. Prohibit others from working. This is contrary to the inalienable rights of citizens in the constitution. Therefore, no rules made by me are acceptable in this matter, the rules set by the departments and ministries themselves are not a legal basis, and no one can be deprived of a job because of that.
Do they say it is because of not wearing a veil? They have to go to court and the court has its own legal procedure. Not wearing a veil is one of the lowest crimes, for the lowest crimes that don’t come with the highest supplementary punishments?
The person who commits intentional or unintentional murder will be punished and no one can deprive him of his job. How can someone be administratively and not judicially punished to the extent of being banned from working for something like not wearing a veil, which is very simple and commonplace in the law?
Banning artists has caused a lot of damage to Iranian cinema, especially in the last year when the films were devoid of famous and popular artists, this issue showed itself more, while the artist himself suffers a lot of emotional damage due to being away from his profession, what do you think?
Yes, it is a situation that unfortunately exists, and basically banning work is one of the most severe punishments.
In my opinion, these people who make such decisions to ban them from work, then they understand what is going on in the world, so they cannot deprive anyone of their jobs.
Artists can follow this issue?
Yes, artists can complain and their complaints should be addressed.
Of course, I hope that the new Minister of Guidance, Mr. Seyed Abbas Salehi, who is a very noble and respectable person, will solve these issues both with his tact and with a dialogue with the political structure of Iran, because this issue is not in the interest of the Iranian society at all.
Mr. Abdi! An artist is the product of years of activity, and one cannot create an artist in one night or two. For example, Alidousti’s song is the product of years of effort, or Haniye Tousli or Baran Kothari, etc. Unfortunately, in the previous government, it was viewed as if one becomes an artist (both actor or filmmaker) made overnight, and for this reason, a large number of artists with a long history were removed from Iranian cinema and people without credit and qualifications were introduced into the world of cinema. What is your analysis in this connection?
The person who initiates the removal of artists has nothing to do with these issues, the better the actor, the more interested he is in removing them, if he could make an artist overnight or two overnight, he would have brought thousands of artists to replace these people, and that’s right. had done, the important thing is that they cannot make an artist. In my opinion, their main problem is not to destroy the artist, their main problem is to destroy the art, they wanted to destroy the art of Iran by putting pressure on the artists, but anyway, we hope that the situation will improve.
In your opinion, in this period, how can the mechanism for the presence of artists be provided again, and is this possible at all?
The most important thing to return the status of artists to the past is the implementation of the law, we must know that all these regulations and the things they did were illegal without exception. If they did according to the regulations, they should know that the regulations were illegal and should be revoked. Even if they did these behaviors without regulations, all these people should go to jail and be punished. But another issue may arise in the middle, which is the issue of head covering and hijab. In my opinion, this issue cannot be resolved within the existing framework of rights. If it is based on Sharia, then the existing law should be implemented. At that time, more than 70% of the people will have problems, that is, from the legal point of view, it is wrong for them to have even a single hair out, it does not matter if their whole head is bare or a single hair, so this law cannot solve the issue, they must pass a law to be in accordance with the custom and opinion of the majority of the society. This is a return to the law regarding the prohibition, regarding the coverage, in my opinion, it is a review of the illegal procedures. Unless they are currently writing a new law, this shows that the previous law did not work, so this law also does not work, a new law should be written; People cannot be forced to do something by force, so people must accept it, while a few should be recognized as violators and not a large number. Therefore, if these two tasks are solved, no special problem will remain.
Can the reappearance of artists help to improve the country’s political atmosphere?
At the moment, our problem is not the political environment, our problem is reducing the gap between the government and the nation, people are living in society, there is a government, and people should feel that the government supports the people. The government can defend the rights of individuals of these people, rights are to serve these people and not to humiliate a few, rights should be a reflection of social will. The police and judicial administrative system should serve such rights that are approved by the overwhelming majority of the society and this overwhelming majority must defend those rights, if these points are done, the political atmosphere will be restored and revived in the best way.
Does the national consensus of the slogan that the 14th government has in mind spread to all fields of culture and art, and how is this consensus, which should be bilateral, regarding prohibited works and restrictions in the field of culture and art?
From the beginning, when the issue of appointing ministers for this government was discussed, regarding the minister of guidance, I believed that Mr. Salehi is the best and most qualified person for this job, because he is able to solve and carry out this policy in the best way without any challenges or disputes. If it happens, he can reach an acceptable understanding with the community of artists in a conversation with high officials and judicial authorities.
I strongly hope that Mr. Salehi will take up this challenge and I believe that he will be able to handle it, we expect that it will be solved in the best way in the near future.