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A director from Iran didn't attend the Oscars, so a Plano engineer accepted on his behalf

Plano's Anousheh Ansari, an Iranian-American engineer (and the first self-funded woman to fly to the International Space Station) accepted the Oscar for 'The Salesman'

At the Oscars tonight, Asghar Farhadi's The Salesman won for best foreign language film. Farhadi, an Iranian native, did not attend the awards, a silent protest against the ban on travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries (including Iran). Accepting on Farhadi's behalf, Plano's Anousheh Ansari, an Iranian-American engineer (and the first self-funded woman to fly to the International Space Station), read a statement from the director that celebrated filmmakers' ability to "create empathy between us and others, an empathy which we need today more than ever."

For more Oscars info, go to guidelive.com/movies.