Iranian actress Taraneh Alidoosti posts picture without headscarf

DUBAI: Leading Iranian actress Taraneh Alidoosti has posted a picture of herself on Instagram without a headscarf to express support for nationwide anti-government protests.

Best-known for her role in "The Salesman", which won an Academy Award in 2017, the pro-reform artist held up a sign in the Instagram post which read "Woman, Life, Freedom" in Kurdish, a popular slogan in the demonstrations.

Protests sparked by the Sept. 16 death of Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police for not wearing "appropriate attire" are posing one of the biggest challenges to Iran's clerical rulers since the 1979 revolution.

Alidoosti wrote a poem in her Instagram post.

"Your final absence, the migration of singing birds, is not the end of this rebellion," it read.

Alidoosti has posted many Instagram posts critical of the clerical establishment in past.

Since the start of protests, at least five female Iranian actresses have posted pictures of themselves without the compulsory hijab in solidarity with the demonstrations in which women have played a leading role.

People from all walks of life are taking part in the popular revolt from shopkeepers to lawyers to youths to athletes.

Iranian officials, who have blamed Amini's death on preexisting medical problems, say the unrest has been fomented by foreign enemies including the United States, and accuse armed separatists of perpetrating violence.