Los Angeles, January 27 (RHC)-- An Iranian actress, who stars in the Oscar-nominated film, The Salesman, says she has decided to boycott this year's Academy Awards ceremony in a show of protest against U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to impose visa bans on Iranians. 

On Thursday, Taraneh Alidoosti took to Twitter and Instagram to slam Trump’s planned visa bans, which she described as “racist” and “unacceptable.”  “Trump’s visa ban for Iranians and others is a racist move and unacceptable,” Alidoosti tweeted, adding: “Whether this will include a cultural event or not, I won’t attend the #AcademyAwards 2017 in protest.” 

‘The Salesman’ was nominated earlier this week as one of the five contenders that could take home the 89th Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.  The movie, which was directed by Oscar-winning director, Asghar Farhadi, took home two awards at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival last May.  The film is about the deteriorating relationship of a couple as they rehearse Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. 

In a tweet late on Tuesday, Trump said he was poised to sign executive orders to ban for several months the entry of refugees into the United States.  Another order will block visas being issued to anyone from seven Middle Eastern and North African countries of Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia and Iran. 

Trump, a vocal supporter of the regime in Israel, has adopted harsh rhetoric against Iran.  During his election campaign, he vowed to “tear up” or try to renegotiate the landmark nuclear deal inked in 2015 between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries, including the U.S. 

Trump’s threats come as earlier this month, the European Union, whose foreign policy chief chaired the P5+1 during the negotiations in the run-up to the deal, renewed its support for the accord, viewed as a win for international diplomacy. 

If imposed, the visa ban would be the latest in a series of anti-Iranian measures taken by the US government in recent months.