Iranian actress Taraneh Alidoosti tweeted on Thursday that she will not be attending the 2017 Academy Awards in protest of President Donald Trump's recent executive order halting refugee and visa applications from 7 Muslim-majority countries, including Iran.
"Trump's visa ban for Iranians is racist," she wrote. "Whether this will include a cultural event or not, I won't attend the #AcademyAwards 2017 in protest." Alidoosti appears in the film The Salesman, directed by Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi. It is nominated for the best foreign language film prize.
The countries affected by Trump's order are Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. The United States is currently bombing four of these countries: Libya, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. In response to criticism, the President told ABC News that the order did not constitute a "Muslim ban," but a restriction on countries with "a history of terrorism."
Watch a trailer for The Salesman below.