Iran arrested two over Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream

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Media reported that Iranian authorities have arrested two artists over a production of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream after a promotional video posted on social media showed female actors dancing with male performers.

Prominent director, Maryam Kazemi, and the manager of the Teheran City Theatre, Saeed Assadi, were detained on September 9th. The play had already been showing for seven nights and only had one night left to run.

The “House of Theatre” in Teheran declaired its ofdficial protest against the detention after an extraordinary general meeting of its members on September 10. Both persons have been released after one night. Culture Minister Abbas Salehi later intervened to secure their release, according to state news agency IRNA, sparing them the bail of three billion rial (roughly $23,000 at the current unofficial rate) each, which had initially been demanded.

Sources: The Guardian, The National (AP), The Times of Israel