A preferred Iranian musician who was arrested two years in the past throughout a crackdown on artists and teachers has been punished with 74 lashes in what activists stated on Thursday was a bid to humiliate him for supporting a nationwide rebellion.
The musician, Mehdi Yarrahi, 43, was subjected to the flogging by officers of the Morality Safety Prosecutor’s Workplace in Tehran on Wednesday, his lawyer Zahra Minuei said on social media. The punishment, which Iran’s Revolutionary Courtroom had sentenced him to, introduced an finish to a yearslong felony case.
“He who shouldn’t be prepared to pay the worth for freedom doesn’t deserve freedom,” Mr. Yarrahi stated in a put up on his official X account on Wednesday. He thanked his authorized workforce and stated, “Wishing for liberation.”
Mostafa Nili, one other lawyer representing Mr. Yarrahi, stated on Thursday that his consumer was unable to sit down or lean on his again due to the punishment. The United Nations’ Worldwide Invoice of Human Rights strictly prohibits flogging, calling it inhumane and degrading.
The acute punishment comes as Iran’s artist group celebrates two Iranian administrators who on Sunday won an Oscar for an animated short that had been nominated by Iran. On social media, some Iranians pointed out in outrage that whereas exterior the nation Iranian artists have been being honored with accolades, inside they confronted abusive therapy by the federal government.
Mr. Yarrahi was arrested in a wave of detentions that aimed to quell any protests marking the anniversary of a 2022 rebellion through which protests led by younger folks, notably girls, rocked Iran’s religiously conservative institution.
These protests erupted after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in police custody after being arrested on accusations of violating Iran’s necessary hijab rule. The 2022 demonstrations swelled to almost six months of nationwide rebellion, with protesters demanding the tip of the Islamic cleric’s rule. They ended with brutal crackdowns that resulted within the killing of greater than 500 folks, the arrest of tens of 1000’s extra and the executions of a number of protesters.
Mr. Yarrahi was one in every of many artists who added their voices to the women-led rebellion. Within the months earlier than the primary anniversary of the protests, he launched “Roosarito,” a music praising Iranian girls who rejected the hijab rule and uncovered their hair as an act of civil disobedience.
“Take off your scarf, let your hair circulate,” he sang in a video that featured a lady dancing, her uncovered hair swaying.
Mr. Yarrahi, who made his music in secret and launched it solely on-line to keep away from censorship, confronted on the spot punishment. The police rounded him up together with dozens of scholars, teachers, journalists and artists.
On the time, the judiciary stated Mr. Yarrahi had launched an “unlawful music” that defied the “morals and norms of an Islamic society.”
Iran’s state news media reported that throughout the raid on Mr. Yarrahi’s residence, the safety forces had discovered alcohol, violating a regulation that bans the consumption and possession of alcohol.
He was initially sentenced to 2 years and eight months in jail, the singer stated in a video published on social media last week. However his sentence was commuted to 1 12 months as he skilled “poor bodily well being,” he stated, and was then later commuted to deal with arrest with 74 lashes.
For that 12 months, Mr. Yarrahi was confined to his residence and wore an digital ankle cuff, he stated. “I’ve spent that one 12 months, and it’s completed now,” he added.
Now free, Mr. Yarrahi has vowed to not return to the stage, as an act of solidarity with Iranian girls.
“In spite of everything these years of being banned from work, I perceive higher the struggling of the Iranian girls,” he stated within the video.
Mr. Nili said on social media on Thursday that he “was behind the door and will hear the sound of the lashes.”
“I may hear him shouting, ‘Thanks, God!’ after every lash,” Mr. Nili stated.
Iran’s artist group and a few well-known musicians, inside and outdoors the nation, have rallied behind Mr. Yarrahi, sharing his image on social media and praising him as a hero of the folks.
Within the wake of the unrest, many Iranian musicians and artists endured persistent harassment from the safety police or have been barred from performing, stated Mehdi Kouhian, a lawyer who’s a member of the Committee for Advocacy for Prosecuted Artists, which was fashioned throughout the antigovernment demonstrations.
Others fled the nation, the targets of presidency forces and hard-line teams, he added.
The lashes given to Mr. Yarrahi have been an effort to humiliate the musician “amongst his followers or non secular strata of Iranian society,” Mr. Kouhian stated.
Not less than 12 of the protesters who have been arrested throughout the crackdown have been sentenced to demise or to prolonged jail phrases, according to Amnesty International.
