Marzieh Vafamehr

Graduated from Fine Arts Faculty in Tehran University in Acting. She is an Iranian independent filmmaker and actress living in Tehran. She directed Nabat, Wind-Ten Years Old (Baad, Bah Saleh) , Hello-Good Morning, Crossed Out and Station. She is one of the artists Sundance has selected as top ten by Wind-ten years old, 2008. She won Rushed Film Festival, Roma Med Film Festival's Best Film prize. Vafamehr was arrested on 29 June 2011, reportedly due to her acting in Granaz Moussavi's 2009 Iranian-Australian film My Tehran for Sale that is critical of her native Iran. She was released on 24 October 2011, after posting unspecified bail. It was reported that she was sentenced to 90 lashes and a year in prison for appearing in the movie as an actress whose work is banned by the Iranian authorities.On 27 October 2011, Amnesty International reported that an Iranian appeals court had reduced Vafamehr's prison sentence to three months and overturned the flogging sentence. Vafamehr was released after 118 days, but she was banned from making or playing in films and any forms of cultural activities as well as from leaving Iran until 2017. Marzieh Vafamehr is the first woman who was imprisoned and banned from acting in the Islamic Republic of Iran for the crime of avant-garde, protestant, bold and progressive acting.