Frightened little men. The autocrats who run Iran and condemn the great Persian people to second-class citizenship are just that. Frightened little men.
These right-wing authoritarians, like so many of them, use religion as cover to perpetuate their ignorance, fear, hatred, and violence. They fear women, young people, other religions, the absence of religion, the LGBTQ community, arts and culture, free speech, innovation, technology, science, satire, and the very thought of modernity. They fear everything they don't understand, which is just about everything. They’re also certain, of course, that their particular beliefs represent the one and only true religion and that all the rest of us are heretics.
The brave, 33-year-old rapper Toomaj Salehi poked a stick in their sclerotic eye. His “crimes”? He dared participate in protests including one after Iran’s God Squads murdered 22-year-old Mahsa Amini for daring to show some of her hair under her hijab. Salehi’s last music video prior to his October 2022 arrest featured the lyrics, "Someone's crime was dancing with her hair in the wind. Someone's crime was that he or she was brave and criticized 44 years of your government."
For these and other “crimes,” Salehi was imprisoned, tortured, and ultimately condemned to death earlier this year. His official crimes included "waging war against God" and "corruption on Earth." I know it; I had the same reaction. Thankfully, the death sentence was reversed by Iran’s Supreme Court this month. Even those wild and crazy guys thought it was too much.
The fate of Toomaj Salehi hangs in the balance. For those who don't like rap, consider the good it is doing here as one brave, young man risks his life speaking truth to power.
