The international community should recognise Iranian artists as human rights defenders on a par with activists, lawyers and journalists opposing the regime. That is the recommendation of a new report titled "I Create; I Resist – Iranian Artists on the Frontline of Social Change", which details the Islamic Republic's "systematic attacks" on artists and crackdown on "freedom of expression" in the wake of the Woman, Life, Freedom protest movement.
Written by the New York-based human rights organisation Artistic Freedom Initiative (AFI), the report was released on the second anniversary of the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, which sparked a wave of deadly protests.
Contemporary artists in Iran played a "pivotal role" in helping turn the "nationwide protest into a cultural uprising that resonated across the globe", wrote AFI's Sanjay Sethi and Johanna Bankston on the Atlantic Council. Artists, musicians, authors and creatives "shaped the movement's messaging".
Among these was a series of Persian language posts on X by musician Shervin Hajipour – "Baraye" ("For the sake of") – that became the de facto anthem of the protests. Meanwhile, visual artists used graffiti, illustrations, paintings and graphic designs to transform public spaces into "canvases of dissent".
The report said that over the past two years the Islamic Republic had "sought to suppress artistic expression and exert control over influential artists", including through censorship, online surveillance, work bans and punitive measures.
The AFI has called on countries to grant asylum and humanitarian visas to artists, cultural workers and other victims fleeing persecution for their involvement in, or defence of, human rights during protests in Iran.
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