Iran: Rapper Toomaj Salehi sentenced to death, says lawyer

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.

mycathas9lives,

This young mans contract with life was terminated for expressing himself in music. This speaks volumes of this part of the world. Not a place to ever go or support. Let it stay a dust bowl of human suffering and need. It’s what that area wants.

Grandwolf319,

Imo this is a great example of what not having freedom of speech actually looks like. It’s not when you get banned on a private social media platform. It’s when government just kills you for talking.

3volver,

Iran is one of the biggest threats to global stability alongside Russia at this point. If they keep fucking around with Israel they’re going to feel Freedom at full force launched right up their fucking ass.

coarse,

It would be nice if the West intervened to protect the innocent people of Iran.

My heart goes out to all the victims. Unfortunately, their pleas fall on deaf ears unlike the Ukrainians or Zionists.

Brown nations have to “solve their own problems.”

Etterra,

Well I mean if he’s a rapper…

Eh, I suppose Iran is worse.

coarse,

Lol, good one.

lung,
@lung@lemmy.world avatar

writes poetry to a rhythm

THIS GUY DESERVES TO DIE

unreachable,
@unreachable@lemmy.world avatar

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/d0118f58-6234-4425-999b-cf620450e98c.gif

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Can you imagine what this person would have done with Shakespeare?

Etterra,

Well to be fair I don’t like non-musical poetry either.

ech,

What the fuck is wrong with you? This is an actual person that’s going to actually be murdered. And you’re here saying it’s ok because he makes music you might not like. Go get help.

coarse,

It was just a joke.

BreakDecks,

I have never met someone who has a specific hatred of rap music that wasn’t using it as a proxy to signal racial hatred.

Like the guy who answers “anything but rap” when asked what kind of music they like. You know exactly what they mean to say…

angrystego,

I know what you mean, but you don’t have to like rap. There are people who just genuinely don’t enjoy it.

SreudianFlip,

“Specific hatred” does not equal “don’t like”.

lando55,

Parents just don’t understand

BreakDecks,

That’s not what I’m saying. I’m talking about people who single rap out or make it the butt of a tasteless joke.

If someone feels the need to joke that everyone who likes or makes rap should be executed, you really just need to take a look at the demographics that listen to or create rap music, and you get a distinct picture of what they don’t like about the rap community (spoiler: it isn’t the music).

And if you ask someone what they like to listen to, and they don’t give a real answer and single out rap as the only genre they dislike, they’re not actually telling you what they like or don’t like, they’re just taking a jab at part of Black culture for the sake of signalling their disapproval.

If you don’t like rap music aesthetically, it’s pretty easy to convey that without sounding like a racist by dismissing the entire genre as if the world would be a better place without it, because people notice when someone focuses their vitriol specifically at PoC cultural strongholds.

I personally don’t listen to much rap, and don’t consider it my style, but I’m sure has hell not going to insult it or the people who enjoy it, because I respect people’s aesthetic and cultural differences and don’t reflexive hate Blackness.

Crikeste,

The word “urban” comes to mind.

DrRatso,

Eh, rap is so different from other genres imo, that it can kind of make sense, especially if their only exposure to rap is what hits charts.

mister_monster,

Good god Iran’s shit is all over the place. He gets sentenced to 6 years, appeals it, gets sentenced to death. Death dude. For saying something out loud. How do governments like this expect to ever gain legitimacy in the eyes of the people they rule?

Atin,

Fear is the most powerful legitimacy authoritarians have.

kromem,

Until it isn’t.

Ask Gaddafi how ‘fear’ worked out as a tactic in the end.

Atin,

It worked as well as any tyrant deserves.

DragonTypeWyvern,

Gaddafi is an excellent example of why most tyrants ban education instead of paying for everyone’s college.

What a weird dude he was. So many unforced errors, so much unnecessary violence mixed with actually seeming to want to improve the standard of living.

Kalkaline,
@Kalkaline@leminal.space avatar

They don’t want legitimacy, they want to rule by brute force

werefreeatlast,

I’ve always wondered what the heck they stand to gain… what’s the reason for all the shitiness if you as the dicktator end up hung on a pole later for the next dicktator.

murmelade,

money

thisbenzingring,

Because if they do it right, they will be the one wearing the boots that hold the heads of the masses to the ground

dovahking,

Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. And politicians suck at learning lessons.

CosmicCleric, (edited )
@CosmicCleric@lemmy.world avatar

I’ve always wondered what the heck they stand to gain…

For the same gain as why Putin’s adversaries fall out of tall building windows; less adversaries. Also, scare the population into submission.

And when your choice is either success or death, you tend to double-down, again, and again.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/legalcode.en

eronth,

Eh, you tend to learn how to make anything you do sound like huge success, regardless of whether it actually is or isn’t.

Badeendje,
@Badeendje@lemmy.world avatar

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.

Milk_Sheikh,

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.

vaultdweller013,

So basically the Proles and the party members, ya know I fucking hate how good human patern recognition can be.

Eatspancakes84,

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.

ReiRose,

Let’s hope his death unites the majority that is against the regime. I mean, let’s hope he doesn’t have to die at all, but if he does that it reignites the protests.

JustZ,

The Iranian Immamate is wildly popular in Iran and the middle east generally. They’ve got homicidal fanatics all over the place ready to kill Jews and Americans and anyone else that suggests political power is derived from the consent of the governed and not from sky daddy.

mister_monster,

Have you ever met an Iranian?

footoro,

Lmao this. Pretty much every Iranian you talk to in a trusted environment hates their government. And then most of them are pretty hardcore atheists either. Like nothing wrong with being atheist but to a degree that makes me personally already uncomfortable.

JustZ,

Yeah, outside of Iran.

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