KEY POINTS
- Iranian actress Taraneh Alidoosti has been released on bail from a prison after being detained for three weeks.
- She had expressed her support for the anti-government protests on Instagram, removing her hijab in a post.
- Her release from a Tehran prison has relieved critics of the Iranian regime as unrest continues across the country.
Iranian authorities released star actor Taraneh Alidoosti on bail on Wednesday after holding her for almost three weeks over her support for the protest movement, her lawyer said.
Alidoosti is one of Iranian cinema's most acclaimed stars, winning international renown for performances in award-winning films by director Asghar Farhadi, including the Oscar-winning 2016 movie The Salesman.
Her detention had prompted an outcry in the film industry and amplified concern about the that have seen thousands arrested.
"My client was released on bail today [Wednesday]," lawyer Zahra Minooee told the ISNA news agency.
Iranian actor Taraneh Alidoosti (centre) poses with friends for a photo after she was released from Evin prison in Tehran. Source: AAP / EPA / Gisoo Faghfouri
Leading figures from the Iranian film industry still inside the country turned out to welcome her, including directors Mani Haghighi and Saeed Roustayi, the images showed.
Other pictures of her being driven away in a car showed her sticking out her tongue and flashing a "V" for victory sign.
The victory sign was widely used among protesters during the 2009-10 Green Movement, one of the largest civil demonstrations since the Iranian Revolution.
"Iranian actress Taraneh Alidoosti released after three weeks in detention: what joy and relief!" tweeted the Cannes Film Festival. "Let's stay involved!"
Iran has been gripped by protests since the on 16 September, a Kurdish woman who was arrested for allegedly violating the country's strict dress code for women.
Alidoosti, 38, was arrested on 17 December after making a string of social media posts supporting the protest movement - including removing her headscarf and condemning the execution of protesters.
Over 600 artists worldwide, including actors Kate Winslet and Mark Rylance and director Pedro Almodovar, had signed an open letter calling for her release.
Her arrest "was a warning to public figures in Iran as part of the Iranian regime's brutal crackdown on the nationwide Woman, Life, Freedom protests," said the petition, published on the Instagram page of Hollywood actor Mark Ruffalo.
'Support of oppression'
As the daughter of a former Iranian international footballer, Alidoosti has long been seen as a champion of women's and civil rights in Iran.
On 9 November, she posted an image of herself without a headscarf, holding a paper with the words "Woman, life, freedom", the main slogan of the protests.
Taraneh Alidoosti posted a photo of herself carrying a sign that reads 'Woman, Life, Freedom', the battle cry in Iran's anti-government protests. Source: Instagram / Taraneh Alidoosti
Her Instagram account with more than eight million followers has been inaccessible since her arrest.
Alidoosti's most recent social media post was on 8 December, the same day Mohsen Shekari, 23, .
"Your silence means the support of the oppression and the oppressor," she wrote on Instagram.
The judiciary's Mizan Online news agency had said the actor was arrested as she "did not provide documentation for some of her claims" about the protests.
It complained that "a number of celebrities" had been publishing "provocative material in support of the street riots".
