On Oscar night, Hollywood stars attack Israel, but silent on Iran

Why does the Iranian woman, who risks everything to remove a headscarf, not merit a red pin from Hollywood celebrities at the Oscars? Why is the Ukrainian family, enduring nights of Iranian-made drones screaming overhead, absent from the red carpet’s moral ledger?To understand the silence is to understand the discomfort of the Iranian reality.The Dolby Theatre is an architecture of amplification.

Every gilded contour is engineered so that a whisper on stage carries to the back of the house.On Oscar night, the acoustics serve a dual purpose: They let us year the emotion in a winner’s throat — and broadcast the political conscience of the world’s most famous faces.This year, the accessory of choice was once again the red “Artists4Ceasefire” pin — a splash of crimson intended to signal deep concern for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.Among those wearing it was “Bridgerton” star Charithra Chandran, who paused on the red carpet to remark how “blessed” she felt to have a platform.

On stage, actor Javier Bardem smugly walked out wearing not one, but two pins.His opening remarks were “No to war and Free Palestine.” It was a classic Hollywood moment: the intersection of immense privilege and the desire to do good.But as the cameras flashed, I found myself thinking not about the voices being amplified, but about the silence filling the gaps between the speeches.Yes, any pro-peace message sounds good at face value, but it does not capture the true intricacies surrounding those facing the harsh reality of war.

There is a peculiar physics to celebrity activism; it tends to congregate where the lights are brightest.We saw this in the recent viral debate surrounding Rachel Zegler’s Harper’s Bazaar interview, where she reflected on “Euro-centric beauty standards” — as if the trailblazing careers of Salma Hayek or Jennifer Lopez had never existed.

It is a recurring Hollywood habit: the tendency to frame one’s own experience as a pioneering ...