Being Harassed for Talking About Sexual Harassment

Following the recent revelations of sexual harassment and abuse in Hollywood, several Iranian actresses spoke about their experiences working in cinema and television in Iran — and their feeling that, even when they tell their stories, it is likely to have little impact on the level of misconduct that goes on in the industry, or to bring about change any time soon. 

In fact, it wasn’t the first time women working in the industry have tried to speak out. In May 2016, 30 actresses working in both TV and cinema wrote an open letter to Ali Asghar Pourmohammadi, who was at the time vice president of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) and in charge of television [Persian link]. The letter outlined how powerful men had offered them roles in exchange for sexual favors, and spoke of the moral corruption so rife in the industry. One of the signatories of the letter was Faghiheh Soltani — but out of 30 women, she was the only one to go public and reveal her name.

In their letter, the actresses pointed out that after they were married, their careers suffered and they were offered either fewer roles or none at all.  “Is there somebody out there who can help us?” they asked.

Faghiheh Soltani was born in 1974 and has a degree in dramatic literature. She started her acting career in 1994, appearing in the movie Blue Scarf, the work of internationally acclaimed director Rakhshan Bani-Etemad. Since then, she has appeared in a number movies and many TV series. But over the last few years, she has appeared in very few productions. She is married to Iranian footballer Jalal Omidian.

After the recent disclosures about sexual harassment in Hollywood, I contacted Soltani to ask her what goes on behind the scenes in Iranian cinema, and about the letter she had signed. “After the letter I got into a lot of trouble,” she told me. “I prefer not to think about and I don’t talk about it a lot.”

When the letter was published, Soltani was pregnant. She says the way her friends and colleagues behaved after her disclosure pained her into silence. “I have always stayed away from controversy,” she said, “but this time I wished I could be the voice of those who have suffered injustice. This did not happen. So much trouble came my way and continues to come my way that I prefer to remain silent.”

They Went into Hiding

Soltani insists that she herself has never been sexually harassed behind the scenes of any movie or TV production she was involved with, and she says she has never been the target of inappropriate offers. “No one dared to treat me this way,” she said. “I behaved in a way that [meant] they dared not do it to me. I stood by a number people who were harassed, but after the letter came out they all went into hiding.”

She paused for a few moments before she continued. “I believed that when somebody stands up to protest then all the others who also want to protest would support [this],” she said. “But then I saw that the protesters were hiding themselves. I cannot understand them. They must be more comfortable this way. I think they behave this way because they feel that the situation works in their favor.”

After the letter was made public, she says some things did change. “I work less and participate less in cinema circles,” she said, “but I hear that the letter was effective and some good things have happened since then.”

Even as the actress acknowledges this, she says if she could go back in time, she would not do it again. “If I knew then that these things were to happen I would have never stepped forward,” she says.  “Now I don’t have anything more to say about it. People can live the way they want to live and it has nothing to do with me.”

Hush! Girls Don't Scream

I tell Soltani that the wave of scandals now sweeping Hollywood could reduce harassment in work environments, and suggest that if she speaks up again it could help build awareness in Iran. But she stops me before I can even finish my sentence.  “In Hollywood they don’t do ‘Hush! Girls Don't Scream,’ whereas here we deny [that] girls scream.”

Soltani is referring to the award-winning film “Hush! Girls Don't Scream” by the Iranian female director Pouran Derakhshandeh. The film tells the story of a woman on death row for killing a man guilty of pedophilia.

“I really do not want talk about this subject again and I think I have explained enough,” she says, bidding me goodbye.

Of course, Faghiheh Soltani is not the only Iranian actress who prefers to remain silent about sexual harassment. The most recent revelations in Iran included statements from a number of people involved in the cinema, all of whom had similar stories to the accounts Soltani publicized — but none of them were willing to go public with their names, even though some of them had volunteered to talk to me about it.

The women had many stories about sexual harassment and inappropriate offers and it was not just Iranian cinema directors, producers, crew, and actors. As with the Hollywood allegations, they people I spoke to even pointed the finger at government officials with highly religious pretensions and façades who have harassed female colleagues, repeatedly groping them, forcing them to kiss them, and pressuring them to become their lovers.

The painful stories turned even more painful when, as we were about to publish them, every one of these women got cold feet and asked us to keep the stories to ourselves and not publish them. This is how one of them explained why she changed her mind: “I know my colleagues will treat me unkindly and ask me why I maligned Iranian cinema like those actresses that wrote Pourmohammadi that letter. They have been attacked so much that now all of them are silent.”

It turns out that Faghiheh Soltani is not an isolated case. Tehran remains a long way from Hollywood or New York.