Popular rapper Toomaj Salehi wrote songs in support of the protest movement in Iran following the death of Jina Mahsa Amini in 2022. He has been in jail for over a year.
Popular Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi was sentenced to death over his role in supporting the protest movement triggered by the death of Jina Mahsa Amini, Iranian reformist newspaper Shargh Daily reported quoting the musician’s lawyer.
“Branch 1 of Isfahan Revolutionary Court … sentenced Toomaj Salehi to death on the charge of corruption on Earth,” the singer’s lawyer Amir Raisian told the newspaper.
The charge covers a broad range of offenses including those related to Islamic morality and can carry the death penalty.
Salehi, 33, was arrested for showing support for anti-government protests, following the death of 22-year-old Iranian-Kurdish woman Jina Mahsa Amini in September 2022. He had also written songs about the protests.
Uhm, there is a good chunk of the population that does not disagree with their government.
Plenty of people in Iran suffer under the regime and the barbaric worldviews the government brings into practice. But don’t be fooled ino thinking these people are a majority there.
Also in Islamic countries that do actually have free elections, Islamist parties get plenty of votes.
I have a Persian expat for a colleague, and he surmised it basically as such:
- For the poor and uneducated, there is religion and aggression with Israel and the US to control them. They are so focused on the outside world, they do not question if better can exist at home by not giving Sepah all the money and power
- For the educated and activists, theirs is brutal repression. You shut up now and forever, or risk everything (including death) to tweet or rip down a poster.
Not many are genuinely happy with the government, especially those who were alive during the Shah and have witness Iran’s downfall in their lifetime. But there’s no option except to emigrate, or accept your reality - the Guardian Council decides in reality.
The entire point in sentencing people like him is fear that he may unite the majority that is against the regime. Also Iran is not your typical Islamic country. The average level of education is high among men and women and until the 1980s women had a lot of freedom. Repression is truly the only way for the current leadership to stay in charge.
