Author: craig

Aydin Aghdashloo has never assaulted or raped anyone, nor has he ever been charged with any sexual or criminal acts.

Contrary to the allegations reported in The New York Times and other outlets, Aydin Aghdashloo has never been accused of rape nor faced any legal inquiry into his behavior or conduct. There have also been no complaints or reports filed against him with police, at his academy or through third-party abuse prevention organizations. 

In his more than 65 year career, Aghdashloo has been privileged to interact with people of all walks of life and has always endeavored to treat people with kindness and respect. Hundreds of his former students, men and women, have come forward to attest to the respectful nature of their years-long interactions with him.

Despite assertions to the contrary in the New York Times article, the reporter never received confirmation of abuse from 45 individuals.

Farnaz Fassihi claimed in her article that 45 people stated that “Mr. Aghdashloo’s behavior toward young female students had been known in Iran’s art circles.” The way that the article is written makes it appear that there have been 45 separate accusations. This is categorically untrue. Additionally, sources and documentation of these 45 interviews have not been provided. Fassihi fails to clarify what she means by “behaviour towards young women” and since none of the people are named it is impossible to verify the behavior they referenced.

Contrary to what the article claims, there is no teaching assistant who has worked for Aghdashoo for 12 years.

While The New York Times article includes claims from an anonymous teaching assistant, no employment records match the tenure claimed. The only long-term TA of the academy has confirmed in media interviews that she never witnessed the behavior alleged in the article.

Long-term TA for the school, Ms. Houri Bidad, who served for nearly 30 years alongside Mr. Aghdashloo helping to manage the class, confirmed in a media interview that no person ever served in that role for more than 2 years. The validity and identity of this anonymous “TA” source is highly questionable.

Students of Aydin Aghdashloo have publicly affirmed the safe and positive environment at the academy and that they never saw the behavior suggested.

Following the initial allegations shared against Aydin Aghdashloo, a group of more than 150 former students, many of them women, published an open letter affirming the positive and professional environment provided by Aydin Aghdashloo.

It is important to point out that beside the dozens of students participating in classes, Aghdashloo’s family members including his son and daughter were also regular students at his academy, spending many hours studying alongside other students.

In multiple news outlets and on social media, the students confirmed that they never saw behavior suggested by The New York Times article. An excerpt from the statement noted:

The encounter described by Sara Omatali in the New York Times article is misleading and questionable.

The New York Times article includes accusations from Sara Omatali claiming that when she visited Mr. Aghdashloo 14 years ago to pick up Mr. Aghdashloo at his studio for an interview at the Iranian National Museum, he “greeted her while naked with a robe draped on his shoulder, forced a kiss and pressed his body on hers.” Mr. Aghdashloo has previously been photographed in his long Moroccan robe which he always wears at his studio and that is fully stitched up at the front. He emphatically denies having ever greeted Mrs. Omatali, or anyone, without being appropriately dressed, and vehemently affirms that he never attempted to kiss, inappropriately touch or otherwise force himself on Mrs. Omatali or anyone else.

According to her account on social media, after this incident, Mrs. Omatali accompanied him to a museum, at which time the below picture was taken.

As recently as 2018, Sara Omatali posted positively about Aydin Aghdashloo, his support of women, and his work as a dissident.

In 2018, while commenting on protests by Iranian women for their social rights, Sara Omatali, who is one of the only named sources in The New York Times article, shared on Twitter an anecdote recalling a phone conversation she had with Aydin Aghdashloo.

She recounts an incident where the conservative newspaper Keyhan named Aydin Aghdashloo, among others, responsible for a “Velvet Revolution” against the Iranian Government. According to her tweet, Aghdashloo told Omatali: “What they don’t realize is that Iranian women…are the revolutionary ones, and we [men] are only bystanders watching.”

The following tweet not only shows Ms. Omatali’s support for Aydin Aghdashloo but demonstrates that Mr. Aghdashloo has no close ties to the regime.

There was a correction issued from the New York Times based on inaccurate reporting by Farnaz Fassihi. Abuse Watch never received any complaints related to Mr. Aghdashloo.

On October 24, 2020, the day after The New York Times article was published, The New York Times issued a correction to the article as the reporter “imprecisely paraphrased [a source’s] comments regarding the recipient of student complaints about Aydin Aghdashloo’s behavior.” 

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.”