Kin of Ahmadinejad adviser seeks asylum

October 14, 2009|Associated Press

BERLIN - The daughter of a top adviser to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has applied for asylum in Germany, organizers of a film festival that she was attending said yesterday.

Narges Kalhor, the daughter of Ahmadinejad’s adviser on cultural and media affairs, submitted her asylum application to authorities in southern Germany, Nuremberg Human Rights Film Festival spokesman Matthias Rued said.

Her father, Mahdi Kalhor, has been seen as a close ally of Ahmadinejad since early this decade.

In an interview with fellow Iranian filmmaker Hana Makhmalbaf posted on YouTube on Monday, Narges Kalhor said she did not believe her father knew about her plans.

“I’m certain he hasn’t seen my film or know about this festival or where I am,’’ she said.

Narges Kalhor had been at the Nuremberg festival to present her film “Darkhish,’’ or “The Rake,’’ which condemns the use of torture and the barbarity of totalitarianism.

Mahdi Kalhor told Iran’s official IRNA news agency that he knew nothing about details of his daughter’s films or her plans to leave the country.

He blamed the Iranian opposition for supporting her attempts to challenge the government.

“This issue is one of the symbols of a media and soft war that opposition has launched,’’ the agency quoted Mahdi Kalhor as saying.

He also told IRNA he had divorced Narges’s mother a year ago over differences of opinion, saying she was a zealous opponent of Ahmadinejad. Narges had been living with her mother.