Oscar-winning actors Marion Cotillard and Juliette Binoche, as well as other French stars of screen and music, filmed themselves chopping off locks of their hair in a video posted on Wednesday in support of protesters in Iran.

“For freedom,” Binoche said as she hacked a large handful of hair off the top of her head with a pair of scissors, before brandishing it in front of the camera.

The video, hashtagged HairForFreedom, comes with Iran engulfed by anti-government protests.

They were sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after her arrest for allegedly violating the strict dress code.

The video of Cotillard, Binoche and other women cutting off locks of their hair was released on an Instagram account, “soutienfemmesiran” — which translates as “support women in Iran”.

“These women, these men are asking for our support. Their courage and their dignity obliges us,” said a post with the video.

“We have decided to respond to the appeal made to us by cutting — us too — some of these locks.”

Some of the other women who took part included actors Charlotte Rampling and Charlotte Gainsbourg, who was also filmed cutting off a lock of hair from the head of her mother, singer Jane Birkin.

This highly symbolic gesture also echoes Iranian history and folklore. The Shahnameh (“The Book of Kings”), a national epic of Iran written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi between 977 and 1010 AD, refers to a princess chopping her hair to protest against the death of her husband seen as unfair.

“Women cutting their hair is an ancient Persian tradition also found in the Shahnameh, when the fury is stronger than the power of the oppressor,” tweeted Shara Atashi, an Iranian writer based in Wales.