French actresses cut own hair in protest over Iranian victim Mahsa Amini's death
Leading French actresses including Juliette Binoche and Isabelle Huppert have cut locks of their hair in protest over the death of Mahsa Amini, the young Iranian woman who died while in the custody of Iran's morality police.
The morality police enforce the Islamic republic's strict dress code.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Amini, 22, was arrested on Sept 13 in Tehran for "inappropriate attire" and died three days later in hospital, sparking waves of protest in which over 130 people have died, according to rights groups.
Iranian authorities have reported that many members of the security forces were killed during the unrest, which has spiralled into the biggest show of opposition to Iran's authorities in years.
Many are calling for the end of more than four decades of Islamic clerical rule.
An Instagram video posted on Wednesday by an account called soutienfemmesiran (support for women of Iran) shows Binoche and other French actresses and singers including Marion Cotillard and Isabelle Adjani cutting their hair, with a Farsi rendition of Italian protest song Bella Ciao accompanying the video montage.
"For freedom," says Binoche, 58, who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in The English Patient (1996), as she snips off a huge handful of her auburn hair and holds it up to the camera.
The video includes French text which translates to: "Mahsa Amini was abused by the morality police until death followed. All she stood accused of was wearing her veil in an inappropriate manner. She died for having a few locks of her hair exposed."
The post has been widely relayed on other social media, including Facebook and Twitter, with the hashtag HairForFreedom.
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