Sculptor Threatened with Arrest

Ahmad Nabizadeh, whose wooden statue of Persian music master Mohammad Reza Shajarian was torn down just days after it was erected, has revealed that he has been threatened with arrest and has fled the city of Mashhad in fear.

Mashhad Municipality had commissioned Nabizadeh to produce a series of sculptures, and the homage to the Iranian cultural icon, who died on October 8, was the latest. He had been working on the project solidly for 11 days and was a day away from completing it when he discovered it had been removed.

In an exclusive interview with IranWire’s affiliate site Journalism is Not a Crime, Nabizadeh said security agents called his mother and threatened that if he did not stop talking about the ordeal he would be arrested. 

He described how the day after his statue was removed, wardens working for Mashhad Mellat Park in Mashhad offered him two million tomans [$71] to remain silent about the incident.

"I worked 10 consecutive days for about 14 hours a day to be able to make a worthy statue of the face of Master Mohammad Reza Shajarian, but the result of my efforts was destroyed in an instant,” he told Journalism is Not A Crime. “When I went to Mashhad Mellat Park on the eleventh day to finish the work, I came across the empty place where the statue had been. It had been removed and concrete had been poured in its place. Then park security guards arrived and invited me to the park management office, where they laughed at me and ridiculed me.”

Despite their laughter, the park guards had a sinister agenda. ”At the management office, I was threatened by park security officers, who said I should not report this to the media. I told them I was very angry with their hideous act and would not remain silent. They offered to pay me two million tomans, to which I replied that I would not exchange my art for money, and that their insult to my efforts and the statue of Master Shajarian would not go unanswered.”

He said the threats toward his mother followed soon after. "The agents told my mother to stop her son from talking about this matter because they might arrest him."

Nabizadeh, a resident of Mashhad, has been carving sculptures out of wood for several years, often using tree trunks as material. His work explores modern Iranian culture and society, which has been regarded as controversial by some. Another sculpture, also displayed in Mellat Park, was a protest against Iran’s law of mandatory hijab for women. "In the past few months, when I had a contract with the Mashhad municipality, along with other sculptures, I also designed a statue in support of [people’s] freedom to wear what they want. This is the girl with an open head," he said. "The statue is still in Mashhad Mellat Park. After the statue of Master Shajarian was destroyed by the guards, I wrote to them that they could destroy this other statue of mine as well.” He said the removal of both statues would demonstrate to the public the guards’ “stupidity and arrogance.”

News of Mohammad Reza Shajarian’s death met with outpourings of grief and shock, but also controversy, of which the removal of the statue is the latest. An hour after news emerged that Shajarian had died, aged 80 from cancer, crowds of people gathered outside Tehran Jam Hospital, where he had spent his last hours, to say their goodbyes. It didn’t take long for videos of security forces pushing back and beating groups of mourners, and further gatherings were met with similar suppression over the days that followed.

Iranians urged authorities to make Shajarian’s burial ceremony a public event, but this request was ignored. Instead, the ceremony was held in secret early one morning.

Loved by millions of Iranians, including at one time by Iran’s leaders, the Persian music maestro had fallen foul of the regime in recent years, from 2009 onward. Hopes for a street to be named after Shajarian were rejected, and the Supreme Leader sent a clear message from Iran’s ruling elite when he failed to make a public gesture of grief or send condolences following the musician's death.

Ahmad Nabizadeh’s ordeal shows that it’s not just Mohammad Reza Shajarian that the government was hostile toward — it was any citizen who showed their respect and admiration for one of Iran’s most cherished modern icons. Weeks on from Shajarian’s death, the artist has been forced to leave his hometown and stop making his art, turning his back on years of hard work and ambition.