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Iran slams Trump travel ban after Iranian film’s Oscar win

by Rebecca Savransky - 02/27/17 8:28 AM ET

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif blasted President Trump’s travel ban after the cast and crew of Iranian film “The Salesman” won an Oscar during the awards ceremony Sunday night.

“Proud of cast & crew of ‘The Salesman’ for Oscar & stance against #MuslimBan,” Zarif tweeted.

“Iranians have represented culture & civilization for millennia.”

Proud of cast & crew of “The Salesman” for Oscar & stance against #MuslimBan. Iranians have represented culture & civilization for millennia

— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) February 27, 2017

“The Salesman” won the Academy Award for the Best Foreign Language Film.

The director of the film, Asghar Farhadi, chose not to attend the ceremony in protest of the president’s order barring refugees and people from seven predominately Muslim countries, including Iran, from entering the U.S.

{mosads}The Trump administration has strongly denied the order, which was blocked earlier this month by a federal judge, amounts to a Muslim ban.

In an acceptance speech read on behalf of the filmmaker by Anousheh Ansari, an Iranian-American and the first female space tourist, Farhadi apologized for his absence and called out the commander in chief for “dividing the world into the ‘us’ and ‘our enemies’ categories.”

“My absence is out of respect for the people of my country and those of other six nations whom have been disrespected by the inhumane law that bans entry of immigrants to the U.S.,” Farhadi said.

“Dividing the world into the ‘us’ and ‘our enemies’ categories creates fear — a deceitful justification for aggression and war,” his statement continued.

“These wars prevent democracy and human rights in countries which have themselves been victims of aggression.”