📸 Laleh Marzban, Venice award and the controversy that blew up

📸 Laleh Marzban, Venice award and the controversy that blew up

Laleh Marzban, an Iranian actress, received the Best Actress award in the Horizons section of the 83rd Venice Film Festival for the film “Moraqeb” (The Watcher), but her remarks after receiving the award—especially a line about the “cost of women’s freedom in Iran”—have become one of the most controversial topics of the past few days in Iran’s media and social media circles.

While some people have strongly questioned Marzban for her speech, another group has supported her against these criticisms and said her success is an achievement for Iranian cinema.

Zeyla Sadighi, a presenter at state-run TV and radio, attacked Marzban with a very harsh tone in a series of Instagram story posts, calling her “a traitor to the homeland” and “illiterate.” By referring to children who were victims of the U.S. and Israel’s attack on Iran, Sadighi wrote: “Women in Iran are free, but our children became victims, our young people were martyred,” and accused Marzban of siding with the enemy.

In response, another group of journalists and social media users defended Marzban.