Sam Asghari has spoken candidly about the parallels he saw between Britney Spears’ conservatorship and the oppression faced by women in Iran.
Asghari was born in Tehran in 1994 before moving to the United States at the age of 13. While talking to Piers Morgan, he explained that speaking out about Iran is of great importance to him.
Throughout the short interview, Morgan keeps the topic on Iran.
Right up until the end, where he drives the conversation off a cliff and into pop-culture scandal territory.
Morgan asked Asghari about his reaction to Brittany Spears’ recent arrest.
“You know, my focus has been on the Iran situation because this was such a huge situation that deserved my full attention,”
Asghari said in response. “As it goes in my past… I cannot skip the past, I celebrate the past… and I think everybody makes mistakes and everybody deserves privacy.”
But the past he’s referring to–his relationship with Spears, is one he seemingly can’t escape. Even while speaking about human rights in Iran, he was asked to weigh in on the pop star’s struggles and the turmoil that has followed her since the end of her conservatorship.
The pair had dated for 7 years, throughout her conservatorship, and were married seven months after she was freed from it. The pair divorced after just a year.
Reflecting on that period, Asghari said aspects of Spears’ situation reminded him of the kinds of restrictions he had seen growing up in Iran.
“Coming from the country of Iran and seeing women being oppressed… not comparing the situation whatsoever, she was also oppressed by many people who took advantage of her,” he said.
“As someone that’s an advocate for women’s rights and wants freedom of speech, and wants freedom for everybody, it was hard to believe and hard to see that someone in America was being oppressed.”
Different systems, different stakes, but for Asghari, the unsettling part was recognising the same loss of autonomy in two very different worlds.
