After President Donald Trump issued an executive order placing a three-month ban on immigrants from a group of countries with a Muslim majority including Iran, director Asghar Farhadi was unsure if he’d be able to attend the Oscars.
Farhadi won the Oscar for best foreign language film Sunday for his movie “The Salesman,” but the director, who decided to boycott Trump’s order by not attending the show, was not present to accept the honor.
Accepting on Farhadi’s behalf was Anousheh Ansari, the first Iranian to travel to space who read a statement from Farhadi:
I’m sorry I’m not with you tonight. My absence is out of respect for the people of my country and those of (the) other six nations who have been disrespected by the inhumane law that bans entry of immigrants to the U.S. Dividing the world into the ‘us’ and ‘our enemies’ categories creates fear, a deceitful justification for aggression and war. These wars prevent democracy and human rights in countries which have themselves been victims of aggression. Filmmakers can turn their cameras to capture shared human qualities and break stereotypes of various nationalities and religions. They create empathy between us and others. An empathy which we need today more than ever.”
Anousheh Ansari accepting Oscar for best foreign language film.
Under the order, now in legal limbo after legal challenges across the country, Farhadi and anyone from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Syria, Sudan and Somalia would have been banned from entering the United States for a period of 90 days.
Farhadi, a previous Oscar winner for his film “A Separation” in 2012, decided in January to boycott the Oscars ceremony in opposition to Trump’s order and decline to go even if an exception was made for him to attend.
“Hard-liners, despite their nationalities, political arguments and wars, regard and understand the world in very much the same way,” Farhadi had said in a statement at the time. “In order to understand the world, they have no choice but to regard it via an ‘us and them’ mentality, which they use to create a fearful image of ‘them’ and inflict fear in the people of their own countries.”
[<a href=”//storify.com/NJentertainment/asghar-farhadi-wins-best-foreign-film” target=”_blank”>View the story “Asghar Farhadi wins Oscar for best foreign film” on Storify</a>]<h1>Asghar Farhadi wins Oscar for best foreign film</h1><h2>The Iranian director boycotted the ceremony in opposition to President Trump’s executive order</h2><p>Storified by <a HACKED_LINKs://storify.com/NJentertainment”>NJ.com</a>· Mon, Feb 27 2017 04:03:35 </p><div>RollingStone: See Iranian director Asghar Farhadi slam Trump’s travel ban in his #Oscars acceptance speech … https://t.co/qIipxviXNfFrank Walle</div><div>Congratulations Asghar Farhadi! You made us proud again! The speech on behalf of Iranian director Asghar Farhadi https://t.co/C6PnTh2LyJDarius</div><div>Another oscar prize wow you deserve it Asghar Farhadi. #Oscar2017mahdokht yaftian</div><div>Congrats to Asghar Farhadi on his #Oscar for The Salesman. I look forward to seeing the new work from this master. https://t.co/WelRC5U9qVMark Gowdy</div> The Salesman – Official US Trailer | Amazon Studios Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AmyKup or on Facebook.
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
