The popular Iranian musician arrested two years ago during the suppression of artists and academics was fined with 74 lashes in what they said on Thursday that activists sought to humiliate him to support uprising throughout the country.
Musician, Mehdi Yarrahi, 43, was subjected to Tehran on Wednesday by police officers of the Office Prosecutor’s Office for morality in Tehran, his lawyer Zahra Minuei said on social media. The punishment, to which the Iranian revolutionary court sentenced him to a longtime criminal case.
“The one who is not willing to pay the price for freedom does not deserve freedom,” Mr. Yarrahi said in the post On his official X account on Wednesday. He thanked his legal team and said, “Wanting to release.”
Mostafa Nili, another lawyer who represents Mr. Yarrahi, said on Thursday that his client could not sit or lean against his back for his sentence. The international proposal of the United Nations Human Rights Act strictly forbids the ban, calling it inhumane and humiliating.
Extreme penalty comes while the Iranian community of artists celebrate two Iranian directors who are Sunday Oscara won for animated short This was nominated by Iran. On social media, some Iranians emphasized anger If the Iranian artists were honored outside the country, inland faced a violent treatment by the Government.
Mr. Yarrahi was arrested in the wave of custody aimed at extinguishing any protests that marked the anniversary of the 2022 uprising, in which protests led by young people, especially women, swinged Iranian religiously conservative establishment.
These protests broke out after 22-year-old Mahs Amini died in a police detention After arresting on charges of violating the Iranian mandatory rule of hijab. Demonstrations 2022 swollen for almost six months of uprising throughout the country, and protesters demanded the end of the rules of the Islamic priest. They finished with brutal actions This resulted in the murder of more than 500 people, arresting tens of thousands more and executing several protesters.
Mr. Yarrahi was one of the many artists who added their votes to the uprising under the guidance of women. In the months before the first anniversary of the protest, he published the song “Roosarito”, a song that praised Iranian women who rejected the rule of hijab and exposed their hair as an act of civil disobedience.
“Take off your scarf, let your hair flow,” he sang In the video It contained a woman who dances, her discovered hair revealed.
Mr. Yarrahi, who performed his music in secret and only posted on the net to avoid censorship, faced the current punishment. Police rounded him off with dozens of students, academics, journalists and artists.
At that time, the judiciary said that Mr. Yarrahi had published “illegal song” who defied “morality and norms of Islamic society.”
Reported Iranian state media This was found alcohol during the power supply to Mr. Yarrahija’s home, violating the law that forbids the consumption and possession of alcohol.
He was initially sentenced to two years and eight months in prison, the singer said in the video Posted on social networks last week. But his sentence was overturned for a year because he was experiencing “bad physical health,” he said, and then later left to home custody with 74 lashes.
For that year, Mr. Yarrahi was imprisoned in his home and wore an electronic cuff for ankle, he said. “I spent that year, and now it’s over,” he added.
Now he is free, Mr. Yarrahi vowed not to return to the stage, as an act of solidarity with Iranian women.
“After all these years, I get a better business, I better understand the suffering of Iranian women,” he said in the video.
Mr. Nili said on social media On Thursday “was behind the door and could hear the sound of the eyelashes.”
“I could hear him shouting,” Thank you, God! “After each eyelash,” Mr. Nili said.
The Iranian artistic community and some famous musicians, inside and outside the country, gathered behind Mr. Yarrahi, sharing their picture on social networks and praising him as a hero of peoples.
In the midst of restlessness, many Iranian musicians and artists have withstanding persistent harassment from the security police or they are forbidden to perform, said Mehdi Kouhian, a lawyer who is a member of the advocacy committee for prosecuted artists, who arose during the demonstration of antigover.
Others fled the country, the goals of the government forces and the stubborn groups, he added.
The lashes of the days of Mr. Yarrahi were an effort to humiliate the musician “among his fans or religious layers of Iranian society,” said Mr. Kouhian.
At least 12 protesters arrested during the action were sentenced to death or long prison sentences, According to Amnesty International.
