Los Angeles, Jan 26 (EFE).- The female star of an Oscar-nominated Iranian film said Thursday that she will boycott the awards ceremony to protest President Donald Trump’s plan to temporarily prohibit residents of Iran and other Muslim nations from obtaining visas to visit the United States.
Taraneh Alidoosti, 33, is featured in “The Salesman,” one of the Oscar nominees in the category of Best Foreign Language Film.
“Trump’s visa ban for Iranians is racist. Whether this will include a cultural event or not, I won’t attend the #AcademyAwards 2017 in protest,” she said on Twitter.
The visa ban is expected to affect Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Sudan.
Trump says that restricting entry from those countries is part of a counter-terrorism strategy.
“I decided not to go even if I could, because it hurts me deeply to see ordinary people of my country being rejected for what might be their legal right to have access to their children abroad or to their school classes as students,” Alidoosti told The New York Times in an e-mail exchange.
“The Salesman” is directed by Asghar Faroodi, whose film “A Separation” won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 2012.