IWAC – Yasser Eskandari, singer and national Iranian national “radif” music instructor; he was arrested for the second time by the security forces in Babol and with battery and assault. Some news sources have announced the fate of his arrest to be Apr. 8, 2023, and caused by his solidarity with the families of those killed in Iran’s Zhina (Mahsa) Movement through performing in their commemoration; it must be added that he is not the only arrestee from Iran’s musical community and news of the arrest of many other musicians have been announced in the course of Zhina Movement as well, including Navid Afagheh, the prominent tonbak-player from Shiraz, Babak Jahanbakhsh and Shervin Hajipour, both pop singers, Mohammad Matin Jafari, guitar-player, Masoud Barabadi, music graduate, music player and instructor, Reza Joodaki, composer, Said Feyzi, flutist and composer, Mehdi Soufali, sport-journalist, musical producer and art advisor, Mohsen Haghshenas, pop singer and music instructor, Hadi Sepehri, musician and musical institute manager, Sepehr Garshasbi, the executive manager of Chartar music band, Abbass Mahmudinejhad, from Minor Bitbox music band, Milad Soltani, art student and musician, and Mahmud Mirzayi, composer and orchestra conductor; and quite suggestively, the long list of “peripheral” musicians, especially folkloric and popular ones, such as Farshad Rostami, musician and Kurdish Yari religion follower, Shahoo Hosseini, the Kurdish singer from Paveh, Khabbat Fadayi, Kurdish social and civil activist, poet and popular musical figure, Said Feyzi, Kurdish musician, Milad Hassanzadeh, singer, Amir Reza Salehi’Niya, musician and student from Abadan, Karim Muhammadi, music and German language instructor, poet and translator from Lahijan, Aran Samimi, musical student in Gilan, and Javad Asefi, a singer from Samirom; also that of the religious so-called minorities, especially among the Bahayi religion, such as Aida Rasti, the Bahayi musical player, Elmira Rahmani, the Bahayi musical player residing in Isfahan with the record of participating in the national and Isfahan philharmonic orchestras, Pooya Amri, the experienced piano-player and instructor theories of music residing in Gilan (who was arrested along with his wife, Nafisa Sa’adatyar); in addition, there are some musicians still kept in detention without any clear legal proceedings and in an extremely worrying situation, after months, including two rappers, Toomaj Salehi and Saman Yasin (the Kurdish rapper), and about the former, social media reported on 4/14/2023 that despite severe injuries caused by torture, he is still refused after months to receive proper medical care, and about the latter, not only was he initially sentenced to execution, a verdict later reversed, but also needs nasal medical case due to severe torture, and Hadi (Abbass) Mirzayi, artist, power engineering graduate from Shahid Beheshti Uni., master of music from Art Uni., and stamp specialist how has been kept in detention for four months now, and was recently reported to have been transferred to Evin Prison and solitary confinement once again; however, the list enumerated above is certain not thorough and misses many names, and when the similar list of arrestees from other artistic areas be added to it, such as that of literature, theatre and cinema, and visual arts, the landscape outlined portray nothing but the comprehensive security-minded suppression of Iran’s state with the totality of what constitute Iran’s independent art, especially among religious and ethnic “minorities.”
