<div style="text-align: justify; "><b style="font-size: 1rem;">Iranian authorities have arrested one of the country's best known actresses, after she expressed solidarity with anti-government demonstrators.</b><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Taraneh Alidoosti was detained on charges of "spreading falsehoods" about the protest movement that has gripped the country, state media said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In an Instagram post last week, she condemned the execution of a man over his involvement with the protests.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ms Alidoosti is best known for her role in the Oscar-winning film The Salesman.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In her post, the 38-year-old took aim at some international organisations for not speaking out against the execution of Mohsen Shekari.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He was hanged by authorities after they accused him of being a "rioter" who blocked a main road in Tehran in September and wounded a member of a paramilitary force with a machete.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"His name was Mohsen Shekari. Every international organisation who is watching this bloodshed and not taking action, is a disgrace to humanity," she wrote.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">According to a post on the state news agency IRNA's Telegram account, she was arrested by police for failing to provide "any documents in line with her claims".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Her Instagram account, which has more than eight million followers, was recently taken down.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The 38-year-old is one of Iran's most successful actresses. She starred in The Salesman, which won an Academy Award in 2016 for the Best International Feature Film.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But since the outbreak of the protest movement she became a vocal critic of the Iranian government's attempts to clamp down on the nationwide unrest, sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody in September.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In November, she attracted attention after posting an image of herself on Instagram without a headscarf to signal solidarity with the demonstrations.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The protest movement has become one of the most serious challenges to the Iranian regime since it came to power in the 1979 revolution.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Authorities have already executed two men after they were found guilty of "moharebeh" - roughly translated as "enmity against God". Under Iranian law, the crime is defined as "creating public insecurity" by threatening lives or property with a weapon. BBC</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh'</div>