Kiana Firouz
Encyclopedia
Kiana Firouz is an Iran
ian lesbian
activist and filmmaker currently residing in the UK
. She is the lead actress in the film Cul-de-Sac
, a drama-documentary based on her own life and work, released in the UK in May 2010. In Iran, she worked underground as an activist for Iranian homosexual women's rights, shooting footage for a documentary about human rights abuses in Iran. Her activities having been discovered by Iranian security services, Firouz was forced to relocate to the UK.
She requested asylum
from the British government, which was initially denied but was later granted in June 2010. The policy turn around came after protracted campaigning on behalf of Firouz by human rights organisations including Amnesty International
, which took the case to European authorities.
The trailer for Cul-de-Sac, in which Firouz plays herself, had received over 30,000 hits on youtube as of May 16, 2010, less than a month after it was uploaded.
Cul-de-Sac is a low budget production made by film directors and human right activists Ramin Goudarzi Nejad and Mahshad Torkan. The film has received no financial support or sponsorship form any governmental institutes or NGOs. The petiotion against Kiana Firouz's deportation from UK created by the directors of the film received more than 50000 signaturies in the first months. According to director Ramin Goudarzinejad, "We strongly believe in endorsing the human rights articles with no personal interpretation. We believe that the human rights prism itself is sufficient if it comes to practice in favour of securing every single human being’s right".
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
ian lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
activist and filmmaker currently residing in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. She is the lead actress in the film Cul-de-Sac
Cul-de-sac 2010
Cul-de-sac is a feature film produced by Ramin Goudarzinejad and Mahshad Torkan, Iranian human rights activists and filmmakers based in London. It premiered on 20 May 2010...
, a drama-documentary based on her own life and work, released in the UK in May 2010. In Iran, she worked underground as an activist for Iranian homosexual women's rights, shooting footage for a documentary about human rights abuses in Iran. Her activities having been discovered by Iranian security services, Firouz was forced to relocate to the UK.
She requested asylum
Right of asylum
Right of asylum is an ancient juridical notion, under which a person persecuted for political opinions or religious beliefs in his or her own country may be protected by another sovereign authority, a foreign country, or church sanctuaries...
from the British government, which was initially denied but was later granted in June 2010. The policy turn around came after protracted campaigning on behalf of Firouz by human rights organisations including Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
, which took the case to European authorities.
The trailer for Cul-de-Sac, in which Firouz plays herself, had received over 30,000 hits on youtube as of May 16, 2010, less than a month after it was uploaded.
Cul-de-Sac is a low budget production made by film directors and human right activists Ramin Goudarzi Nejad and Mahshad Torkan. The film has received no financial support or sponsorship form any governmental institutes or NGOs. The petiotion against Kiana Firouz's deportation from UK created by the directors of the film received more than 50000 signaturies in the first months. According to director Ramin Goudarzinejad, "We strongly believe in endorsing the human rights articles with no personal interpretation. We believe that the human rights prism itself is sufficient if it comes to practice in favour of securing every single human being’s right".