Ever since taking office, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has come under increasing pressure from hard-liners who have been trying to tie his administration to the “infiltration project of the enemy.” The code word “infiltration” has especially been used in relation to the arrests of dual nationals.

In what some have deemed as pushback against this pressure, the debut screening Oct. 25 at the University of Tehran of a film about jailed Iranian-American businessman Siamak Namazi and the ecosystem of Iranian startups was canceled, causing outrage among hard-liners. 

Dubai-based Namazi was arrested soon after arriving in Iran last year and was recently sentenced to 10 years in prison on the charge of “cooperation with the hostile government of America.” His father, Baquer Namazi, who was detained in February, was handed the same sentence.

According to the conservative Sobhe-No newspaper, the film — dubbed "Shabnaameh" (Secret Pamphlets) — narrates the story of “the activities of a Telegram channel ... which disclosed an espionage network’s ‘infiltration’ of entrepreneurs.”