Folks- this is not going away and I will do my best to keep this alive until Marzieh Vafamehr and others held in Iran are released.

Yesterday, I wrote that the lead actress of My Tehran for Sale Marzieh Vafamehr was sentenced to 90 lashes and a year in jail. That sentence was imposed for acting in a film.

The film was shot in Iran and produced by two Australian women Julie Ryan and Kate Croser and directed by an Iranian-Australian woman Granaz Moussavi. It was partially funded by the Australian government. The producers have released a statement in light of the sentencing of Marzieh.

We would like to express our deep shock and sadness at the sentence imposed by the Iranian government against actress Marzieh Vafamehr…And we continue to offer our support to Marzieh and her family by respecting their wishes to let the case and the appeal follow the proper legal channels.

The producers would like to emphasise that Marzieh’s involvement in the film was limited to her role as an actress and she was not in any other way involved in the behind-the-scenes filmmaking…The film was never intended to be distributed within Iran and its dissemination on the black market in Tehran had been totally outside their control.

Since Australian government funds were used to make this movie, the government is looking into this issue and will hopefully reach out to the Iranian government.

Australia protests Iran lashing sentence (Sydney Morning Herald)