Eighty Iranian Kurdish families, who have lost loved ones in Tehran’s crackdown on dissent, have called for the release of Toomaj Salehi, the Iranian rapper sentenced to death for his songs against repression, injustice, and poverty.
The statement, published on the Hengaw website on Tuesday, underlines the communal impact of Salehi’s potential execution, stating, “The effort to free Toomaj is not just about freeing an individual, it is about the happiness of a community.”
The families, who have lost loved ones during the Woman, Life, Freedom protests, argue that without voices like Salehi’s, “Kordestan province will be lonelier and the path to freedom, equality, and democracy based on human rights in Iranian society will be much more difficult.”
The statement criticizes Salehi’s death sentence as “unjust and against the most basic principles of human rights,” praising him for being a resonant voice that has highlighted “the different layers of injustice and oppression.”
The families say, “As justice-seeking families of Kordestan province, we know few artists who have so loudly and clearly cried out against decades of systematic injustice against Iranian Kurds.” Kurds in Iran remain one of the most persecuted minorities in the country.
On Sunday, hundreds of musicians demanded the release of Salehi and other jailed artists through an open letter, signaling a broad coalition of support for artistic freedom and opposition to Iran’s harsh punitive measures against protestors.
Salehi was first detained in October 2021 after releasing a hit song critical of the regime.On death row, his fearless dissent has seen the young artist sentenced to death in Iran’s continuing flurry of executions in the wake of the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom, movement, sparked by the death in morality police custody of Mahsa Amini for the alleged improper wearing of her headscarf.
