Toomaj Salehi he is only one of the artists to have been affected by the growing Iranian repressive measures, but he is the one who more than others characterizes the entire movement born around the country’s generation Z.
The glocal cohesion that young Iranians found in the aftermath of the brutal murder of the Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini at the hands of the moral police, it has defined the boundaries of a revolt that among other things shouts out the end of gender apartheid. An unacceptable prospect for the Islamic regime, which has tightened repressive measures against its own children, casting a very dark shadow on the future of the country and the new generations.
A trend that has not subsided at all and which in recent weeks has once again shown the face of ferocious fascist violence.
Toomaj Salehi’s social activism has been expressed in recent years through music and video clips.
Since “Mouse Hole” the thirty-three-year-old rapper dialogues directly with the people and addresses a direct challenge to the Islamic Republic, revealing a precise revolutionary awareness against the regime.
Toomaj Salehi, “Mouse Hole” the music video
With the lexicon of an urgent and no-frills street video, Salehi pronounces, among other things, a very clear statement “We are the redeemers of our time, our own hidden Imam“.
A message of incredible secular power, sometimes unknown even in the Western world, and which undermines any political-religious intermediation other than that linked to a possible private and personal choice. But in his speech he takes it out on all forms of realpolitik and in particular on the NIAC, the National Iranian American Councilaccused several times for his positions aligned with the regime, while warning that the Oscar of some directors who were able to work thanks to the establishment can easily be pissed on.
The reference, which is explicit in the song, is to Asghar Farhadi, whose support for the Woman, Life, Freedom movement came when it was no longer possible to remain silent.
A leading figure among the most politically active musicians, Toomaj has paid a high price for his tenacity and honesty, with a series of very serious accusations imposed by the Iranian Revolutionary Tribunal, which are the direct and unequivocal reflection of the positions taken by the country’s government against any form of dissent.
Incitement to revolt and violence, propaganda against the Islamic Republic, support for forms of association that are illegal and dangerous for public order and the entire stability of the country, dissemination of false news. All declinations of a single concept: the repression of free thought and any form of dissident.
After the last arrest and more than a year and a half in prison, branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court of Ifahan sentenced him to death on charges of “corruption on Earth“. The news arrived recently through Amir Raisian, the artist’s lawyer, and follows Toomaj’s arrest in October 2022, after the great wave of demonstrations that set the Iranian streets on fire following the death of Mahsa Amini.
A ruling that exceeds the appellate authority of the Supreme Court and represents an even bleaker sign, if any were needed, of the brutal arbiters of power of a fascist regime.
The death sentence of another rapper, Saman Yasin also arrested in the same period, was reduced to 5 years in prison in recent days, thus reducing the sentence of “War Against God“, but not at all eliminating the climate of terror and torture that the twenty-nine-year-old Kurd suffered during detention.
Toomaj, on the other hand, risks hanging and there are only 15 days left for the appeal.
In the meantime, his YouTube channel is populated with visual content that relaunches the songs from the latest album recorded, while the two most recent official video clips date back to October 2022.
Among them, the most powerful is Meydoone Jangwhere they review the images of the collective revolt against Islamic fascism (NDA Due to age restrictions, the video can only be seen if logged in to YouTube)
Arabs, Assyrians, Armenians, Turkmens, Maznis, Sistanis, Baluchis, Talesh, Tats, Azeris, Kurds, Gilaks, Lurs, Persians, Gashqais and Baha’is. We are one thing, we are the union of several rivers, we are the sea. (Toomaj Salehi)
