Iranian Singer Arrested After Releasing Protest Songs

An Iranian singer has been arrested after releasing songs in support of the anti-government protest movement that has swept the country for nearly four months, IranWire reports.

Fardin Naji was taken into custody on January 7 when armed forces stormed his house in Tehran and confiscated his personal electronic devices, according to relatives.

In a short phone call to his family, the singer said he had been transferred to a solitary cell in ward 209 of Tehran’s Evin Prison. The ward is under the control of the Ministry of Intelligence.

Naji has recently released two songs on his personal Instagram account praising the victims of the bloody state crackdown on the demonstrations triggered by the September death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of morally police.

Security forces have killed more than 500 people and arrested over 18,000 since the protests began, activists say.

Around 20 people have been handed capital punishment in connection with the demonstrations. Four of them have been executed by the Islamic Republic so far.

A growing number of Iranian artists have voiced support for the protest movement, which represent one of the most serious challenges to the theocracy installed by the 1979 Islamic Revolution, with singers refusing to release new songs or appear in concerts.