Among the thousands of Iranians who protested the death of a woman in custody for violating the government’s restrictions on women’s attire was the dissident rapper Toomaj Salehi. He has been arrested and his life appears to be in danger, The Washington Post reported.
Salehi’s rap lyrics and performances have scorched Iran’s ruling religious leaders, who have struggled to violently quell the demonstrations in Tehran and other cities. He has been accused “corruption on earth,” which the Post, citing Amnesty International, said is “one of the charges leveled against at least five people sentenced to death by courts in Tehran over the protests.”
“A free Iran, in my opinion, is a country where plainclothes [policemen] cannot abduct you from the streets and have the law protect them,” Salehi told the Canadian Broadcast Corp. News shortly before he was arrested. “A free Iran, in my opinion, is a country where regime agents do not have license to commit rape.”
Mahsa Amini, 22, died in the custody of the theocracy’s morality police in September.
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