The Guardian- The US state department has tweeted and then deleted a congratulatory message for an Oscar win by a prominent Iranian director who criticized President Donald Trumps travel ban as inhumane.
The state departments official Persian-language Twitter account, @USAdarFarsi, tweeted congratulations to the Iranian people and Asghar Farhadi, director of The Salesman, after the movie won an Oscar for best foreign-language film on Sunday, according to screenshots of the message circulated on Twitter.
Farhadi boycotted the Oscars ceremony and issued a statement criticising Trumps January executive order that temporarily banned entry to the United States by Iranians and citizens of six other Muslim-majority countries. The ban was blocked by federal courts, although the administration has said it is working on a new order.
Farhadi chose two Iranian-Americans a female engineer and a former Nasa scientist to represent him at the ceremony. Anousheh Ansari, an engineer who was the first female space tourist, read a statement on Farhadis behalf calling the travel ban inhumane.
Dividing the world into the us and our enemies categories creates fear, a deceitful justification for aggression and war, Ansari said, reading from Farhadis statement.