Iran arrests documentary film-maker

Iranian film-maker and women's rights activist Mahnaz Mohammadi has been arrested in the capital, the opposition website Kaleme.com reported.

Mohammadi "was arrested on Sunday morning at her home by unidentified security forces," said the site of former premier Mir Hossein Mousavi, who is currently under house arrest, adding that "the reason for her arrest is unknown."

Kaleme.com reported that Mohammadi may have been arrested by the intelligence services of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards.

Her arrest has not been reported by official or other media in Iran.

Mohammadi, director of the short documentary "Women Without Shadows," has won several awards and contributed to veteran Rakhshan Bani-Etemad's "We are half of Iran's population" documentary on women's demands in the 2009 presidential poll.

Kaleme.com said Mohammadi was arrested and released in July 2009, together with prominent film-maker Jafar Panahi, at a cemetery south of Tehran.

They had attended a ceremony commemorating those killed in the crackdown that followed the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which the opposition considered to have been rigged.

Cinema industry sources in Paris told AFP on Monday that Mohammadi's passport was seized recently, preventing her from going to Cannes in May for the screening of Reza Serkanian's "Marriage Ephemeral," in which she was the lead actress.

In a message from Mohammadi read out by acclaimed film-maker Costa-Gavras during a debate in Cannes, she said she was in the process of making a new documentary on Iranian women, the French sources said.

"I am a woman, I am a film-maker, two sufficient reasons to be guilty in this country," said the message, adding: "I have hope."

Source: AFP