Yaghma Golrouee was arrested on 30 November 2015, according to the Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA), writes Freemuse, an international watchdog against censuring music Wednesday.
Golrouee was detained because of a new video condemning Tehran’s treatment of women, according to media reports.
The Telegraph reported, that intelligence officers from the Revolutionary Guards arrested him because of his video on Iranian women’s struggle for equal rights and how they are “happy and alive, despite being jailed.”
“The security agents came and searched all over our home and then arrested Yaghma Golrouee and took him away without telling us where they were taking him,” announced a message posted on his Instagram account by his wife.
“We have not had any news about him since and are extremely worried about his health and safety.”
“Vi har blod på os over alt, men….
The music video of Golrouee’s song, “Shere Rahai” — Song of Freedom — shows an assemblage of images of Iranian women and repeats the refrain “We are covered in blood but we know that at the end of the story, We’re free,” according to an online translation.
One of Goulrouee’s poems was also used by controversial Iranian rapper Shahin Najafi, who had a death sentence issued against him in 2012 for his lyrics.
Further, two Iranian poets were sentenced to lashes and lengthy prison sentences in October 2015 for, among other things, collaborating with Najafi.
Golrouee is well known in Iran for his songs and poetry and had the country’s best-selling book last year entitled ‘I Have a Dream.’
Symfoniorkester ville spille nationalhymnen, men så…
Meanwhile, a concert by the Tehran Symphony Orchestra was cancelled at the last minute on 29 November because some of the musicians were female, reported The National.
The orchestra was due to play in Tehran before the World Wrestling Clubs Cup competition and was stopped from performing as it was readying itself to play the national anthem of Iran.
The orchestra’s conductor Ali Rahbari said organisers told him that “it is absolutely impossible for women to play musical instruments on stage.”
“I was offended and said it was impossible for me to accept such an insult. We either play all together or we leave,” Rahbari said.
While current president Hassan Rouhani has said that no one should stop artists and musicians from performing if they have a permit from the ministry of culture, the reality on the ground is different.
Female musicians have claimed that they have been stopped from performing in venues, especially outside of the capital.
Female musicians have been banned from performing solo since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Additionally, earlier in November 2015, at least 26 musicians were banned from performing in Iran for a variety of reasons, including “inappropriate behaviour”, notes Copenhagen-based Freemuse.
