Iranian-American Woman Wins First Oscar and Persian Culture is Referenced on Stage for the First Time
Independent Aggregator of Iran-related News/Events, Kodoom.com: Shortly after an Iranian American musician won his first Grammy (see News HERE), last night there were two more "firsts," on the stage of Oscars 2019, for the Persian culture and Iranians. First, there was a pleasant reference to ancient Persian Zoroastrian cultural motto by Oscar-Winning Film Editor John Ottman. In his acceptance speech for the film Bohemian Rhapsody, when thanking his parents, Ottman sent a shout-out to Freddie Mercury (the subject of the film, who had Parsi parents), by quoting the ancient Persian Zoroastrian moral imperative (guideline): “Good thoughts, Good words, Good deeds.”
Separately, Rayka Zehtabchi became the first Iranian-American woman to win an Oscar for her documentary short film "Period. End of Sentence." She was humbled by the honor. "I can’t believe a film about menstruation just won an Oscar," said the 25-year-old director in her acceptance speech.
According to Vice, The 25-minute documentary addresses the cultural stigma of menstruation in a rural Indian village, where most women do not have access to sanitary pads or menstrual products. Girls who began menstruating tend to drop out of school — out of shame or stigma.
To film this project, Zehtabchi flew to India twice in 2017, just one year after she graduated from the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts.
"It was remarkable and inspiring for me to think that this was all started by a group of 15- and 16-year-old girls with their high school teacher," Zehtabchi told AFI.com about her inspiration to make this film about the teenage activists. "They were raising money to send a sanitary pad machine to a village in India and they felt the best way to maximize the impact of the project was to make a documentary about the whole process. I kept asking myself, 'Why have I never heard of this issue?'"
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