Iran bans national film festival over poster of actress without hijab

Iran banned a film festival after a promotional poster showed an actress not wearing a hijab, the state-run (Islamic Republic News Agency) IRNA said on Saturday. The 13th edition of the Iranian Short Film Association (ISFA) festival was banned after Iran’s ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance deemed the poster inappropriate, the state-run IRNA added. During mass protests across Iran last year, Iranian women burned hijabs and cut their hair to protest the obligatory dress code of the Iranian regime. The protests broke out following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Jhina Amini, who died after being taken into custody by Iran’s so-called "morality police," for not wearing the hijab according to the government-imposed standards.