An Uzbek film director said Wednesday that she had been convicted of slander for making a documentary on wedding rituals in the authoritarian state, but was released on amnesty.
Umida Akhmedova said the court in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, found her guilty of slander and "offense through mass media."
Akhmedova's film, "The Burden of Virginity," describes hardships that young women face in the mostly Muslim nation during and after the traditional nuptial ceremonies, including the public demonstration of a bloodstained bed sheet after the first night.
The film has never been shown in Uzbekistan but is available online.
Akhmedova's trial followed a conclusion of government-appointed experts that found her film "offensive for the Uzbek nation" and a media campaign that lambasted her films and photographs.
Akhmedova also said the experts negatively evaluated her photo album on the life of rural Uzbeks, concluding that the pictures prompt foreigners to think that Uzbekistan "lives in the Middle Ages."
Her lawyer, Sergei Mayorov, said the court "completely ignored" his arguments and evidence proving Akhmedova's innocence.
Uzbek officials were not available for comment.
Since the 1980s, Akhmedova has filmed more than 20 documentaries. Her recent films cover topics that are taboo in the official Uzbek media — such as ordeals of Uzbek women whose husbands earn a living abroad or the lives of ethnic Russians — amid rising nationalism and the official condemnation of the country's Soviet past.
Uzbek President Islam Karimov has ruled the country with an iron fist since before the Soviet collapse, wiping out dissent and eliminating opposition.
Karimov's government censors the media, filters unwanted Internet resources and bans "corrupting" films from Russia and Hollywood.
In 2006, folk singer Dadakhon Khasanov was given a three-year suspended sentence for writing a song about a bloody government crackdown on the 2005 popular uprising in the eastern Uzbek city of Andijan.
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