There’s no length Iran won’t go to in order to quash dissent. Murder included.
Last week, the Islamic Republic Revolutionary Court of Isfahan sentenced rapper Toomaj Salehi to death over songs that criticized the government.
Salehi’s primary charge was “corruption on earth,” which is punishable by death in Iran.
The ruling goes against an Iranian Supreme Court decision that said the 33-year-old rapper’s case qualified for amnesty.
Salehi’s lawyer said they’d be appealing the ruling. They have 20 days to do so.
Salehi was first arrested and arbitrarily detained in October 2023, after he released a song supporting the protesters of the Women, Life, Freedom movement following Mahsa Amini’s September 2022 murder at the hands of Iran’s morality police.
His lyrics were simply: “Someone’s crime was that her hair was flowing in the wind. Someone’s crime was that he or she was brave and [was] outspoken.”
Roughly a year later, he was released on bail, after being sentenced to six years, yet 12 days later, he was arrested again — this time for posting a video detailing his torture and the conditions of his detention.
Those are just two of his unjust run-ins with Iran’s “justice” system.
To date, he has endured two arrests without a warrant, three sham trials and four charges that are routinely used against dissidents — “corruption on earth,” “spreading propaganda,” “cooperating with a hostile government” and “incitement to violence.”
Salehi has spent 528 days in arbitrary detention, at least 400 of which were in solitary confinement or incommunicado.
During all of that time, he wasn’t allowed access to his lawyer or contact with his family and was repeatedly tortured.
All for a song, basically.
Imagine Jay-Z or Eminem being sentenced to death for exercising one of the most basic of human rights: the freedom of expression.
For people everywhere, throughout all of time, music has reflected culture, faith, political views and values.
Artists detail their personal tragedies through lyrics, bring people together through catchy beats and unite us.
Not so for the roughly 72% of the world’s population living under authoritarian regimes, like Salehi.
That’s because dictators around the world also understand the power of song.
And just as they abuse the media, courts and electoral systems to manipulate public opinion and prolong their rule, authoritarians also view controlling music as yet another weapon in their arsenal for oppression.
The Islamic Republic is no exception.
We at the Human Rights Foundation are acutely aware of this, which is why our litigation work is so essential to what we do.
We routinely submit petitions for prisoners of conscience in authoritarian regimes to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.
For Salehi, too: In fact, we had been in the process of submitting one for Salehi, hoping to beat the Iranian court to the punch, when he was sentenced.
His case is emblematic of an authoritarian regime’s extreme fear of dissent.
The Islamic Republic did not invoke a legal basis for his arrest. His lawyer was not given access to his case files and his trials were never made public, and, therefore, were unfair. He was repeatedly charged with any sentence the Islamic Republic could think of to keep him in prison arbitrarily, violating the principle of legality.
Salehi’s case reveals, yet again, just how scared the Islamic Republic is of those who are willing to speak out.
Let’s not forget: The ongoing revolution against the regime started because a 22-year-old woman dared to show a few strands of hair.
We are at a crucial intersection of the arts and human rights. Dictators are slowly recognizing the influence artists have over people.
Creativity is a form of dissent, and an extremely powerful one.
So powerful, it seems, dictators like those in Iran are quick to murder anyone who dares to resort to it.
Claudia Bennett is a legal and program officer at the Human Rights Foundation.