On November 2, 2020, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) published an article titled “Iran’s #MeToo movement makes waves in Toronto as calls mount for festival to cut ties with celebrated artist”. The article suggests that Tirgan has ties to Aydin Aghdashloo, an Iranian artist recently accused of sexual misconduct as part of Iran’s burgeoning #MeToo movement. Tirgan wishes to clarify that we do not have any ties to any of the artists that have performed or presented their works at any of our festivals. Specifically, to clear the ambiguity of CBC’s article, Tirgan does not have any ties with Aydin Aghdashloo.
Tirgan attracts nearly 150,000 visitors to its biennial festivals that take place in Toronto. Since its inception, Tirgan has showcased the works of over 1,000 artists from all around the world including Aghdashloo’s work. Tirgan upholds the basic values of Canadian society including gender equality; zero-tolerance towards discrimination, harassment, and violence in all its forms. Tirgan follows a rigorous artist selection process based on their artistic merits and ensures that they showcase similar values to the Tirgan organization.
Tirgan strongly condemns all acts of sexual misconduct, and has a zero-tolerance policy towards all forms of harassment and discrimination. We too, are concerned by the news surrounding Iran’s #MeToo movement and will be closely monitoring the developments. In an effort to foster a safe and welcoming environment for all our volunteers and stakeholders, we will continue to uphold our policies against harassment and discrimination and commit that we will never act as a forum for those who are guilty of sexual misconduct.
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