Muslim Hate of Actors
Afghan film star seeks asylum in France after death threats over unveiling
AFP
May 5, 2016
Afghan actress Marina Golbahari and her husband have been chased from
their Kabul home to the brink of suicide in a French asylum shelter,
after a photograph appeared of her without a veil.
Fearful for their lives, the couple has kept a low profile since their
arrival in France just over five months ago for a film festival. "We
never thought of staying," said Azizi, the feted star of an
internationally-acclaimed film. "We hardly packed anything."
But death threats in Afghanistan to them and their family, they said, ruled out a return.
Golbahari was only 10-years-old in late 2001 when she was plucked from
the streets of Kabul and thrust to stardom as the heroine in the Golden
Globe-winning film "Osama."
She was then selling magazines on the streets of the capital, and had
witnessed the violence of the recently-toppled Taliban regime first
hand when her father was beaten in front of her.
In the film set during the Taliban's rule, she played a girl who
disguises herself as a boy so that she can walk freely on the street.
"Osama" was a hit and made Golbahari, now 24, an instant star in her
country. "Cinema is my life," she told AFP. "In a film, I can say
everything about my people."
Her husband, Noorullah Azizi, also found a way out of grinding poverty
through Afghanistan's burgeoning film industry. He grew up in Pakistan
among the millions of Afghan refugees who had fled the Soviet war of
the 1980s. Now 28, he recalls a childhood spent sleeping under a tent
and working in a shoe factory, before returning to Kabul and trying his
hand at a thousand and one jobs.
He finally turned to acting, where his muscular physique and square jaw
brought him roles as police officers and soldiers fighting the Taliban.
"I was happy. I had everything," he said.
Azizi and Golbahari met on Facebook and quickly fell in love, but the
match was not welcomed by Azizi's family, who refused to attend the
marriage last September.
"They were ashamed of my wife because she is an actress and the whole
world can see her photo," he said. It did not take long for more
serious trouble to arise.
A picture of Golbahari, head uncovered, at a festival in South Korea drew the ire of conservatives.
The imam in her local village of Kapisa announced that she should not
return, which Azizi said translates as: "She must die." Soon after a
bomb was thrown into their garden in Kabul, but mercifully failed to
explode. Telephone threats started to pour in, and the couple was
forced to move from house to house. In mid-November, they flew to
Nantes in western France, where Golbahari was to appear in a festival,
the Festival of Three Continents.
But their families, who had also received death threats, told them they
had to stay away. The couple have found themselves in a decrepit
shelter for asylum seekers in Dreux, 90 kilometers (56 miles) outside
of Paris. Their small green and violet room looks out over a roof full
of discarded rubbish.
Golbahari has struggled to cope with the forced exile, attempting
suicide and now on anti-depressants. "I dreamed of living in France,
but not like this," she said. They are particularly worried about
running into fellow Afghans. "It's very important that no one
recognizes Marina," said Azizi, who locks his wife in the room every
time he leaves, to make sure no one gets to her and carries out the
death sentence passed by conservative imams a world away.
To avoid detection, Golbahari remains tightly veiled in public spaces -
a cruel twist in the tale, given the way their nightmare began. "When
you are an actor or actress in Afghanistan, or part of a film, you are
accused of being an infidel, you are always in danger," said Siddiq
Barmak, the director of "Osama," who also became a refugee in France
one year ago.
The withdrawal of most international forces from Kabul in mid-2014
brought an end to the protection that had allowed a relative amount of
liberal modernity to flourish in Kabul and certain towns. Since then, a
wave of religious conservatism has washed over the country - "and not
only from the Taliban," said Barmak.
Nearly 3,700 civilians died in the ongoing conflict last year,
according to the UN - a record for the past decade. The uptick in
violence has sparked a fresh exodus from the country, particularly
among Kabul's middle-class liberals.
Back in their dank room, Golbahari sees little light at the end of the
tunnel. "Before, I dreamed of the future," she said. "Now I think only
of the past."
SAUDI ARABIA: TERRORISM TV SHOW ACTORS
GET DEATH THREATS
Jeddah,
20 Oct. (AKI) - Saudi actors in a TV series dealing with the issue of terrorism
have received death threats after the programme was broadcast on Syrian
television, the Saudi newspaper Arab News reports. The 30-episode series, Al-Hoor
al-Ain (Beautiful Maidens), is about Jordanian, Lebanese, Moroccan, Egyptian and
Syrian families living in residential complexes in Saudi Arabia and the Islamic
terrorists who want to attack them.
Mishael al-Mutairi, one of the actors in the series who plays a would-be suicide
bomber, said he started receiving threatening phone calls and text messages
before the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, but they increased after the series
was broadcast by the MBC (Middle East Broadcasting Corporation) TV station. "The
messages annoyed me, but I try to ignore them. I expected to be criticised when
I agreed to play a young Saudi who has been driven to do things by suspected
terrorists," he was quoted as saying.
The series is directed by a Syrian Muslim, Najdat Anzour, who describes it as "a
work about society and the innocent victims of terrorism". The programme's
message is that terrorism is giving Islam a bad name and Muslims are suffering
as a result. "The series is aimed at those who have not made up their minds
about terrorism yet," he said. "We want to tell them that Islam is a religion of
tolerance, peace and dialogue. It's not a religion of violence."
Saudi Arabia has been hit by a wave of militant violence since May 2003, when a
group of terrorists attacked residential compounds mostly housing foreigners in
the capital Riyadh. Anzour said the series was based on those bombings.
One of the show's Saudi writers, Abdullah Bjad, describes himself as a former
militant, and was consulted on the religious aspects of the series.
The show's title refers to the 70 virgins the terrorists are promised will be
their reward in heaven. The belief comes from one of the sayings of the Prophet
Mohammed, which militants read as meaning that martyrs who die defending God and
their honour will meet more than 70 virgins in paradise.
Since going on air, the programme has been widely discussed in the Arab media
and on the Internet, and has been both praised and criticised, with the title
coming in for particular criticism.
Programmes broadcast during Ramadan often come under attack. Last year some TV
channels stopped airing the series 'The Road to Kabul', which portrayed life
under the Taliban, after everyone involved in it was threatened in Islamist
website messages.