Aydin Aghdashloo and his family have endured years of attacks and smear campaigns due to views on the Iranian government and equality in Iran.
Aydin Aghdashloo has been criticized and maligned in government-controlled media over the years due to his Pahlavi-era position, political views and work. As late as 2018, in a state-owned conservative Kayhan Newspaper article, Mr. Aghdashloo was accused by the Basij Organization and Kayhan, as well as by the Iranian Judiciary, of being a “CIA agent” and “anti-revolutionary for receiving the French Government Legion of Honor Award.” He is also called an “Israel sympathizer.”
Additionally, his daughter has been exiled from Iran since 2009 for her activism, advocating for human rights in Iran and her journalism work with “dissident media.” She too has been attacked with false new stories, and was condemned by the official state-owned Kayhan Newspaper for working with a “zionist network” after calling for peace between Palestine and Israel on the controversial show she helped launch, Samt-e No — the first all-women talk show in Iranian media.
Throughout his life, there have been numerous occurrences of interrogation from government entities related to his views and his daughter’s activism. Aydin Aghdashloo and his family have endured years of attacks and smear campaigns.
To learn about the deep animosity and mistrust of the Iranian government against Aydin Aghashloo, the reporter, Farnaz Fassihi, could have done simple search on conservative and state media content. An important fact that had been omitted from Ms. Fassihi’s article.