Iran's death sentence to rapper Toomaj Salehi is a message to the rest to stifle dissent

"Even if the menacing wind, this night-wanderer, unfurls with reckless roar,

What will you do when the dawn rises, brimming with vibrant rhymes?"

An exiled Iranian singer, Dariush Eghbali, shared this poem on Instagram in response to the death sentence handed down on April 24 by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Court to rapper Toomaj Salehi.

The poem was originally recited in 1990 by Shahyar Dadvar in reaction to the assassination of Iranian leftist activist Gholam Keshavarz in front of his mother, wife and two children while they lived in exile in Cyprus.

Dadvar's poem was a cry against Iran’s Islamic establishment, which responded to any opposition with bullets, prison cells, firing squads and gallows.

Over two decades after that outcry, Iranians still live with the lingering dread of the death penalty, which the establishment systematically uses against its opposition. This strategy has been manifested more boldly when the country’s military theocracy has been under domestic or international pressure.

This time, as the military confrontation with Israel reached a new climax, dissident rapper Toomaj Salehi, 33, has been targeted by one of the judicial system's juries, infamously known as "hanging judges".

A working-class rapper

Salehi, a metal workshop worker and rapper, was one of the figures who publicly supported the demonstration that rocked Iran in 2022. The protests began after the death of Mahsa Amini in Islamic morality police custody and rapidly evolved into nationwide anti-establishment protests, also known as the "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement.

About 500 individuals were killed by the security services and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) officers cracking down on the demonstrations. Over 28,000 were arrested, according to rights groups, and Salehi was one of them.

However, this was not the first time the establishment put him behind bars. In 2021, the IRGC arrested him because of the songs he published on the internet criticizing the establishment and the country’s theocracy. That arrest lasted for nine days, and he was sentenced to six months of prison and a fine, accused of "propaganda against the establishment."

The second arrest, though, was different in nature and happened at the height of the 2022 uprising. This time he was kept in solitary confinement for 252 days, and his forced confession, pledging guilty, was broadcast on the national TV channel.

Eventually, in November 2023, he was released on bail after over one year of arrest without any verdict from the court. However, his freedom was short-lived, and after 12 days, he was arrested again. During those few days of freedom, in a video, he revealed the details of mental and physical tortures he went through while he was in the hands of the IRGC interrogators.

When he was detained again, the court accused him of "spreading corruption on earth" and sentenced him to death.

The verdict sparked widespread indignation among the public, with many expressing their opposition to the sentence on social media. Internationally acclaimed Iranian artists, including musician Kayhan Kalhor, joined the citizens in demonstrating their anger against the judicial system.

In an Instagram story, Kalhor condemned remaining silent in response to the verdict: "Our silence is equal to stand with the oppressor and support oppression."

Jailed activists such as Narges Mohammadi also joined the voices. In a message from inside the prison, she said: "Toomaj Salehi is the expressive voice of the "Women, Life, Freedom" movement and its soundtrack. The execution of Toomaj is the execution of our living movement."

Off social media and on the streets, other activists raised images of Salehi on hand-made banners from passenger bridges across the capital Tehran, demanding his release.

The court verdict has also caused international uproar, and the French foreign ministry urged an end to the execution of dissidents in Iran, while the Italian foreign minister Antonio Tajani wrote on X: "I strongly condemn the sentence of the Iranian authorities imposing the death penalty on the musician Toomaj Salehi."

A verdict to spark terror

Meanwhile, many voices opposing the death sentence suggested that the establishment aimed at spreading fear among dissidents by executing opposition voices or sentencing them to death.

Eghbal Eghbali, Salehi's uncle, told BBC Persian that the ruling aimed to silence dissidents and spark terror. He said the government sought revenge for the 'Woman, Life, Freedom' uprising.

"By issuing a death sentence for Toomaj, they want to warn the nation that the Islamic government will execute their children [if they don’t obey]," he said.

Death penalty as a collective punishment has been well documented since Islamists hijacked the 1979 revolution and gripped total power following the brutal killing of their nationalist and leftist rivals.

During and after the 2022 uprising, Iran's Islamic judiciary system wasted no time in sending protestors to the gallows, leaving a horrifying record with 576 hangings by rope.

This trend continued in 2023 with 834 executions. In May 2023, the establishment dramatically increased the number of carrying out death penalty and The New Arab report showed that Iran executed one person every six hours.

The impact that such executions have on society, was strongly addressed in a letter that Saeed Masouri, a jailed political activist serving a life sentence, sent from inside Ghezel Hesar prison in January.

Masouri, who has been in prison since 1999, wrote that the widespread executions in 2023 made that year different for him and other prisoners serving long-term sentences.

"When the death chamber officers arrive daily to escort someone away, their wrists bound in handcuffs, their feet in shackles, and their final gaze locks onto your face, leaving you utterly helpless. You, too, feel the weight of the gallows," he wrote.

"Every passing second becomes a sentence for you, an execution shared with them. Throughout this past year, I have felt the agony of each departure as if it was my own execution."