Iranian film director and screenwriter Asghar Farhadi on Sunday received an Oscar for the best foreign-language film for The Salesman. However, the director gave the 89th Academy Awards a miss to protest against the United States President DonaldTrump's controversial travel ban.
Hollywood stars protest against Trump ahead of Oscars weekend
Trump, last month, had signed an executive order, which barred refugees and people from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States, including Iran. His travel ban faced widespread criticism and protests across the country and has now been temporarily stayed by a federal court after the Washington state filed a lawsuit asking the ban to be revoked.
Farhadi chose not to attend the awards night, held at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, out of respect to all the seven countries, which were affected by the travel ban. He sent out a statement through his associate in which he slammed Trump's travel ban and labelled it as "inhumane." He said that the travel ban was disrespectful not just to his country, but also to six others included in the ban list.
Deeply admire Asghar Farhadi now 2nd time #Oscars winner "My absence's out of respect for the people of my country..." on #MuslimBan.
— Gilluis Pérez (@Gilluis_Perez) February 27, 2017
"Dividing the world into the us and them categories creates fear – a justification for aggression and war," the statement read. "Filmmakers turn their cameras to break stereotypes of various nationalities and religions. They create empathy between us and others, an empathy that we need today more than ever," it added.
Farhadi had earlier told The New York Times in a statement, when Trump first signed the order in late January, that he decided not to attend the event even if he was granted an exception, saying it "now seems that the possibility of this presence is being accompanied by ifs and buts which are in no way acceptable to me even if exceptions were to be made for my trip."
"Dividing the world into the us and our enemies categories creates fear" —Asghar Farhadi #MuslimBan #Oscars pic.twitter.com/h17W3Fjc5U
— Jolt Texas ⚡️ (@jolt_texas) February 27, 2017
The awards night's host and comedian Jimmy Kimmel also took shots at the US president for his controversial ban stating, "The country is divided right now. [But] I wanna say thank you to president Trump. I mean, remember last year when it seemed like the Oscars were racist? That's gone."
