As the talks to revive the landmark 2015 nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action continue with uncertainty, the administration of President Ebrahim Raisi is stepping up pressure on activists and dissidents in a bid to ensure at least on the domestic front that it is able to rule the roost. 

Building on decades of experience in the judiciary where he served as chief justice for nearly three years between 2019-2021, Ebrahim Raisi is working with other branches of the government to stifle critical voices and tighten the noose around the media, political activists, artists and other influencers with unconventional views challenging the status quo, including the forlorn state of the national economy. 

In the latest wave of crackdowns, three acclaimed filmmakers have been arrested on charges of propaganda against the establishment, drawing outrage by the international film community. The celebrated directors are Mohammad Rasoulof, Mostafa Al-Ahmad and Jafar Panahi. Panahi, who has been living under house arrest since 2010 and was subject to a 20-year ban on making films after being tried a decade ago for working on a movie deriding the disputed reelection of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the 2009 presidential race, is the most distinguished prisoner facing a six-year sentence. 

Panahi is one of the pioneers of Iranian cinema’s New Wave and was described by the Boston Globe as a “prolific prisoner” and “revisited visionary.” He was the recipient of a Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2015. His films shed a probing light on the state of life in an insular Iran increasingly inhospitable to its youth and women.