Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi has been sentenced to death after using his music and social media accounts to speak out against his country’s government.
According to NBC News, the Hip Hop artist is one of approximately 18,000 people believed to have been arrested during protests in Iran following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. The young Kurdish Iranian woman died in September 2022 after being detained by the country’s “morality police” for not following the strict Islamic dress code.
Her death sparked weeks of protests that lead to more deaths at the hands of Iranian authorities in violent clashes with demonstrators.
Days after Amini’s death Toomaj Salehi posted a video to Instagram that saw him marching alongside other protesters. “Unity is the secret to our victory, we are all Iran’s family,” he captioned the post.
Salehi’s online commentary echoed anti-government themes in his music. One of his most recent songs, uploaded to YouTube in October, spoke directly to injustices against the Iranian people in the years since the Islamic Revolution replaced former Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s regime with a religious fundamentalist political system.
“How many young people did you kill to build towers for yourself?” he raps in Persian on the song “Fal”. “Someone has lost their young children and someone has lost their youth/ Someone’s crime was having hair that flows free in the wind/ Someone’s crime was having a brave heart and a sharp tongue.”
The state-run Iranian Students’ News Agency reported that Toomaj Salehi was arrested on October 30, 2022 under suspicion of trying to flee the country.
He was charged — and later found guilty — of “corruption on earth,” a crime that covers all offenses which the government believes “threaten social and political well-being.”
On December 6, authorities released a confession video in which the artist said: “Music can produce violence. I have made mistakes, I do apologize. I apologize to you and the society for any violence that I have instigated.”
The confession came weeks after he had been sentenced to death in November, and well ahead of the moment when Toomaj Salehi was allowed to hire a personal attorney on December 29. More than 500,000 supporters have signed a petition for his release; however, at press time he was still facing death by public hanging.
An execution date has not yet been released. Fans and supporters of Toomaj Salehi grew even more concerned after the rapper’s official Twitter account posted on Friday (January 6) that he has been beaten so badly that he may lose his eyesight.
Hadi Ghaemi, the executive director of the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran, told NBC News that he does not expect the sentence to be overturned.
“These courtrooms are really not a place of justice since they don’t involve any investigation, due process or the right of a defendant to defend himself and have independent counsel,” he explained.
The fundamentalist regime could only win because the last shah was a puppet of the West and sold out Iran’s resources for pennies to the US, UK and Israel meanwhile he spent billions on fancy parties and shat on Islamic traditions.
Obviously you don’t know shit. Neither on Iran nor Islam. Therefore it would be very appreciated if you shut the fuck. Best regards.
You know what that confession means right? Torture. You know what torture in arabic nations means right? Male rape. I’m sure Jay z and roc nation can fix this…
Iranians are not arabs. They are persians. Dumb fuck!
They’re not Persians..they’re Iranian. In fact when it was still called Persia Persians called themselves Iranian. Dumb fuck!
Iranian and Persian are the same thing halfwit! Persians is the historical term given to the people who lived in Pars before it was renamed Iran in 1935. Please stop embarrassing yourself you big dumb fuck!
Good! I applaud our Iranian brothers for ensuring they keep all control over women! Women should have choice! Men should decide ALL! Women are practically useless, aside from catering to our animalistic needs at home, like cleaning for us and such
A woman is the reason you’re unfortunately here and I have no doubt in my mind that choosing you over an abortion, is her life’s greatest regret. My greatest regret is telling your sperm-donor, “You ARE the father!” on my show, many, many years ago.
Shut up bigot. We don’t need women to birth babies. They can be made in test tubes, or by impregnation transgender men.
Damn your a real ignorant punk huh? Get out of north America, go home don’t need no terrorist shit here.
Well, luckily most Americans are leftists nowadays. They invite my people in with open arms, due to their sheer ignorance about our views. We will become the majority in America in a matter of decades. Thank you for voting Biden, he is very helpful for our mass migration to western nations. London is majority Muslim! Took 3 decades for that to happen. America will not be liberal once we are the majority. But we back liberal policies for now, as conservatives don’t want mass migration to USA. Once we have power, we won’t allow migration either, aside from Muslim nations. You are a defeated a conquered nation, you just don’t realize it yet.
@ Muslims win _ because you weirdo arab fucks breed like rats, it’s true, you rats realized that you can’t win a war against an army that actually could conquer your lands with one bomb, so you outbreed everything! Happened in France too. Congratulations kadafi’s faggits!
End woman’s suffrage NOW!!! They have suffered enough!
Lot of so-called men in here showing their appreciation for cuckolding and being controlled that don’t care to admit it.
They’re not men.
So? Not our fight.