Taming the Stars the Islamic Way: Who Needs a Secret Celebrity Committee

Celebrities who oppose government policies will be monitored in Iran

In the Islamic Republic of Iran, a new secret “surveillance and punitive” agency has been created – the Committee on Celebrities. Information about him leaked to the West as a result of a leak within the organization – so the Iranian side believes. But in Hollywood they are sure that this is the fruit of the tireless work of Iranian emigrants.

What kind of secret committee is this and what does Hollywood have to do with it, Russian-speaking and Iranian emigrants living in Los Angeles told us.

– I have been under my windows since autumn, there have been demonstrations in support of Iranian women, I’m already used to it, – shares a Hollywood actress of Russian origin, who lives in the very center of LA, – on local Broadway in the building of the Orpheus Theater. – Billboards demanding to tear off their hijab hang even on Rodeo Drive (the street of the most expensive boutiques and jewelry. – Author), and on Hollywood Boulevard, where prostitutes stand. We have all the Persian nobility here, who fled the Islamic revolution in 1979, if not they themselves, then their heirs – all very rich. And the heirs of the deposed Shah also have one of the houses here, and they, of course, like their former courtiers, are interested in freeing Iran from the mullahs.

According to our ex-compatriot, due to the fact that the richest of Iranian political emigrants settled in LA, since September last year (since the death in Tehran of the 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, detained by the the inhabitants of the city found themselves at the epicenter of the Iranian opposition. Hollywood stars and Eurocelebrities – Angelina Jolie, Robert de Niro, Sting, Juliette Binoche, Isabelle Adjani, Marion Cotillard and others were the first to speak in support of the Iranians. Thanks to their activity, the most expensive districts of the city were hung with calls to help the Iranians “open their faces”, and the World Wide Web was flooded with their spectacular performances “against the arbitrariness of the mullahs”. Iranian emigrants from Santa Monica, where small businesses live compactly, spare no time for daily street pickets and rallies. According to the documents obtained by the Shah’s underground, the Committee on Celebrities, as a permanent Iranian government agency, was born in the depths of the “Special Group on the Favorites of the Iranian People”, created as a temporary measure.

“Immediately after the death of Makhsa, many of our pop, film and sports stars began to openly oppose the regime,” explains an Iranian emigrant from LA, she still has relatives in Iran, so she prefers not to name her name. – Then the ayatollahs decided that they needed to be looked after, and created a secret “special group”. And now, apparently, they liked it so much that they wanted to leave it forever.

– And what did the “special group on people’s favorites” do?

– They tracked those celebrities who were especially active on the Internet, at concerts, at private meetings, and tried to intimidate them. Fatima Motamed-Arya, Tarane Alidusti, Katayoun Riyahi, Asghar Farhadi and some others admitted this.

Fatima Motamed-Arya is considered “the most important actress in Islamic cinema” in Iran. Until October last year, Fatima did not part with the hijab either on the screen or in private life. But after the death of Mahsa Amini, the actress posted her “obscene pictures” (removing her hijab) on the Web, accompanying them with a similarly obscene video, where she is indignant with her head uncovered that the authorities are using her photo in a hijab to promote Islam. Fatima’s example was also followed by actresses Katayoun Riyahi and Tarane Alidusti. And the Iranian film director, Oscar winner Asghar Farhadi supported them.

“Motamed-Arya-khanum was offended by the regime a few years ago, when Hollywood invited her to seminars on Iranian cinema, and the Iranian authorities did not let her go,” our Iranian interlocutor from LA shares. – Katayoun Riyahi also immediately after the death of Mahsa took off her hijab and joined the protest movement. On November 20, the “special group on the favorites of the Iranian people” figured her out, arrested and imprisoned her. They kept him in jail for a week and released him on bail – that’s such intimidation. Our other star, Tarane Alidusti, was arrested after she posted a photo of herself without a hijab with a banner: “Woman, life, freedom.” Now these hang in LA at every turn. Well, Asghar Farhadi simply did not return to Iran, he and several other people from the black list of the Committee are here with us. For this, their bank accounts were blocked in Iran.

According to information from the Celebrity Committee, the new secret office managed to declare the behavior of actress Fatima Motamed-Arya “persistent insolence that provokes anger” and promised her “serious charges with consideration of her case as a matter of priority.” In general, the Committee has 141 representatives of Iranian bohemians “on the pencil” in connection with “inciting protest actions”. In addition to those already mentioned there, Iranian football star Ali Daei, TV presenter Ehsan Karami and film directors Peg Akhangarani, Manizhe Hekmat, Barzu Arjumand and Shahin Samadpour. To all of them, the Islamic government promises to “recalculate taxes”, taking into account “regular part-time jobs in the West”, and apply other “limitations expected within the framework of the law.” And the Committee’s internal documents allegedly emphasize that “celebrity pacification should be done in a way that reduces costs and increases the benefits in maintaining the foundations of the regime.”