ABU DHABI: Actor Nazanin Boniadi on Wednesday urged the world to back the protests in her native Iran calling for women’s rights and political change, saying despots fear nothing “more than a free and politically active woman.”
Speaking on the sidelines of the Forbes 30/50 Summit in Abu Dhabi, Boniadi told The Associated Press that she hopes people will sign a petition she’s supporting accusing Taliban-controlled Afghanistan and Iran of committing “gender apartheid” with their policies targeting women.
“These systems of oppressing women, of dehumanizing women, are based on strengthening and keeping these entrenched systems of power in place,” she said. “So we have to legally recognize this as gender apartheid in order to be able to overcome it.”
Boniadi, who as a young child left Tehran with her family for England following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, has used her fame as an actor in the series “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” on Amazon Prime and in roles in feature films to highlight what’s happening back in Iran.
Since September, Iran has faced mass protests following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being detained by the country’s morality police. In the time since, activists say over 500 people have been killed and more than 19,000 others detained in a security force crackdown.
“The thing that is unprecedented is we’re seeing 12-year-old girls, schoolgirls, come out into the streets saying, ‘We don’t want an Islamic Republic,” Boniadi said. “The courage that takes is astounding. And that courage has been contagious.”
However, recent months have seen suspected poisonings at girls’ schools in the country. While details remain difficult to ascertain, the group Human Rights Activists in Iran says at least 290 suspected school poisonings have happened over recent months, with at least 7,060 students claiming to be affected.
It remains unclear what chemical might have been used, if any. No one has claimed the attacks and authorities have not identified any suspects. Unlike neighboring Afghanistan, Iran has no recent history of religious extremists targeting girls’ education. However, some activists worry extremists might be poisoning girls to keep them out of school.
“The thing that ties us together is that (with) dictators and despots, there’s nothing that they fear more than a free and politically active woman. And so that’s why the crackdowns exist today in Iran ... as you’re seeing with the chemical attacks on schoolgirls.”
She added: “We have to come together. We have to unite. We have to find a way forward and end these atrocities against women.”
![]()
Actor Nazanin Boniadi asks world to back Iran women protests
Short Url
https://arab.news/r22dw
Actor Nazanin Boniadi asks world to back Iran women protests
- Boniadi said she hopes people will sign a petition she's supporting accusing Taliban-controlled Afghanistan and Iran of committing “gender apartheid”
- Since September, Iran has faced mass protests following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini
Security officer arrested over Syria killings: official
DAMASCUS: Syria’s authorities have arrested an internal security officer as a suspect in the killing of four civilians in the majority-Druze Sweida province, the local internal security chief said.
Four people were shot dead and a fifth seriously wounded in the incident on Saturday, in the village of Al-Matana, said Hossam Al-Tahan, the state news agency SANA reported.
The initial investigation, carried out with the help of one of the survivors of the attack, indicated that one suspect was a member of the local Internal Security Directorate, he said.
“The officer was immediately detained and referred for investigation,” he added.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had earlier reported that four people were killed and a fifth wounded by gunfire from unknown assailants as they were harvesting olives.
The authorities had cleared the olive pickers to be in the northern part of the province controlled by government forces, it added.
Sweida province is the stronghold of the Druze minority in the south of the country.
Violence erupted there briefly in July last year, with clashes between Druze fighters and Sunni Bedouin that rapidly escalated, drawing in government forces and tribal fighters from other parts of Syria.
Syrian authorities have said their forces intervened to stop the clashes, but witnesses, Druze factions and the London-based Observatory have accused them of siding with the Bedouin and committing abuses against the Druze.
Although a ceasefire was reached later that month, the situation remained tense and access to Sweida difficult.
Residents accuse the government of having imposed a blockade on the province, from which tens of thousands of inhabitants have fled — a charge Damascus denies.
Several aid convoys have entered since then.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, more than 185,000 people remain uprooted.
Four people were shot dead and a fifth seriously wounded in the incident on Saturday, in the village of Al-Matana, said Hossam Al-Tahan, the state news agency SANA reported.
The initial investigation, carried out with the help of one of the survivors of the attack, indicated that one suspect was a member of the local Internal Security Directorate, he said.
“The officer was immediately detained and referred for investigation,” he added.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had earlier reported that four people were killed and a fifth wounded by gunfire from unknown assailants as they were harvesting olives.
The authorities had cleared the olive pickers to be in the northern part of the province controlled by government forces, it added.
Sweida province is the stronghold of the Druze minority in the south of the country.
Violence erupted there briefly in July last year, with clashes between Druze fighters and Sunni Bedouin that rapidly escalated, drawing in government forces and tribal fighters from other parts of Syria.
Syrian authorities have said their forces intervened to stop the clashes, but witnesses, Druze factions and the London-based Observatory have accused them of siding with the Bedouin and committing abuses against the Druze.
Although a ceasefire was reached later that month, the situation remained tense and access to Sweida difficult.
Residents accuse the government of having imposed a blockade on the province, from which tens of thousands of inhabitants have fled — a charge Damascus denies.
Several aid convoys have entered since then.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, more than 185,000 people remain uprooted.
Latest updates
Recommended
© 2026 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.