Pejman Jamshidi in the film "Grassland," which won an award at the Antalya Golden Film Festival in Turkey in 2022.
Pejman Jamshidi, a former football player who has worked as a film and television actor over the past decade, has long been one of the most popular public figures in Iranian society. Accused of rape, arrested and then quickly released, he left Iran for Turkey before arriving in Canada on Friday, October 31. For the past 10 days, the case has been the most talked-about topic in Iran, fueling social media and daily conversations. It has deeply divided Iranians but has also revealed the slow evolution of a society that is, step by step, attempting to free itself from misogyny and patriarchy.
It has quickly become clear that the actor whose arrest for kidnapping and rape had been reported by the media on October 21 was Pejman Jamshidi. On October 25, the actor was released on bail set at 200 billion tomans (about €1.6 million), according to some Iranian media outlets. This is a staggering sum in the country's current economic situation.
The actor's defenders, doubting the veracity of the accusations, and a minority demanding justice for the victim, pointing out that women in Iran who dare to report sexual violence are often stigmatized, were at odds when an event upended the debate.
