Hollywood has been relatively silent on Iran, with almost no direct mention of the war at the Oscars, and it has not gone unnoticed by a small group of Iranian-American celebrities.
Bobby Samini, a lawyer who has represented the likes of former Clippers owner Donald Sterling and T-Pain, is leading a charge to address the war that began February 28 with US and Israeli strikes on Iran.
Max Amini, the first Iranian comedian to sell out Madison Square Garden, was the first to join Samini on their mission to get public figures in media, entertainment and sports to speak up about human rights abuses in Iran, by the current regime against its own people, through social media posts or at live events.
They’re calling the initiative Alliance for a Free Iran.
“I’d have to say that the Iranians inside Iran and outside Iran have been really out there, very vocal,” Samini said. “But we haven’t really seen engagement from outside our community in a way that we’ve seen with other causes."
To spark that conversation, Samini is collecting stories from people in Iran of the regime’s human rights abuses, to help Americans feel connected with what’s happening on a human level.
Samini says Alliance for a Free Iran’s mission is not political and they are not for or against the war. It’s advocating for human rights, without taking sides on how those rights should be secured.
People in Iran are risking their lives to share their stories with him, Samini said, as the Islamic Republic monitors all the digital traffic in Iran.
“The internet is primarily shut down,” he explained. “Some people will get intermittent access either through Starlink or through VPNs and they’ll be able to get us stories out. If they’re found out … they’ll likely be arrested and tortured and executed as well.”
The stories Samini most wants to share are of the Gen Z activists who died leading widespread protests beginning in December, demanding economic reform and freedom of expression, amid crippling inflation and oppressive social policies.
The death toll of Iranians killed by their government has been estimated at 20,000 to 30,000. The protests have died down, but protesters are still being hunted down.
“One of the stories I heard was about families that had to go to makeshift morgues in order to find their dead children,” Samini said. “The regime has taken over the cold storage facilities in the cities because there’s so many casualties of their brutality.”
Innocent Iranians are also dying because of strikes carried out by the US and Israel. Though estimates vary, the nonprofit Human Rights Activists in Iran said on March 12 that nearly 2,000 Iranians had been killed, including nearly 1,300 civilians, at least 200 of whom are children.
Iran could retaliate. The FBI recently issued a warning that in February Iran had considered a drone strike on unspecified targets in California in the event of a US attack.
“I think it should be taken very seriously,” Samini said. “Anybody who thinks that the Islamic regime does not have a far reach is wrong. They should be concerned because they will go to any length to extract their retribution.”
Read more at https://nypost.com/2026/03/18/us-news/max-amini-pushes-hollywood-to-speak-out-on-iran/
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