Iranian Underground Rappers Arrested For 'Insulting Sacred Values'

The protest was captured in viral videos circulating during the Israel-Hamas conflict. The death toll from the recent attacks had risen to at least 700 in Israel since Saturday.

Regime leadership has expressed support for Hamas, the Iran-backed militant group that launched hundreds of rockets at Israel. In Tehran, lawmakers were seen chanting slogans such as "Death to Israel, Death to America" on Saturday.

While the Islamic Republic's propaganda apparatus had organized street celebrations in support of the "Palestinian victory" in Tehran and other cities on Saturday evening, sources in Iran indicated that the participants were predominantly pro-regime and supporters of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and their families. Ordinary Iranians had largely stayed away from these celebrations.

However, at the football match, a different sentiment emerged as Iranian fans voiced their opposition to Palestine. They could be heard shouting, "Take that Palestinian flag and shove it up your A**!"

Morgan Ortagus, a former US Department of State official, reacted to the video, expressing her admiration for the Iranian people.

Officials have cited Sanaz Tafazzoli, was also "organizing educational groups for Baha'i children" among the charges brought against her, the latest case one in a long line facing persecuted Baha'i in Iran.

The charges brought against her include "forming a group with the intent to disrupt internal security," resulting in a sentence of six years and six months. Additionally, she received a three-year and seven-month prison term for "collusion and conspiracy to commit a crime against national security," and eight months for engaging in "deviant educational or promotional activities."

The 1979 constitution of the Islamic Republic only officially acknowledges Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism as recognized religions. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, in a religious verdict issued in 2018, prohibited any form of contact, including business interactions, with adherents of the Baha'i faith.

Tafazzoli was arrested at home last November in Mashhad by agents of the Ministry of Intelligence, and imprisoned in Vakilabad Prison.

The Baha'i population, estimated to be approximately 300,000 in Iran and the largest minority, are routinely arrested and detained. They frequently experience harassment, are coerced into leaving their residences and businesses, and face discrimination in terms of access to government employment and higher education opportunities.

Former US President Barack Obama also conveyed his congratulations, highlighting Mohammadi's decades-long advocacy for the rights of women and girls in Iran. Obama's message on X read, "For decades, Narges Mohammadi has been a vocal advocate for women and girls in Iran.

This Nobel Prize is a well-deserved recognition of her courage, and the hope that she represents—not only for the women in Iran, but for women fighting repression and violence around the world."

French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his admiration in a message, stating, “Her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and for human rights is essential and universal.”

The European Union released a statement in which they celebrated the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Mohammadi, underscoring her unwavering dedication to upholding human dignity and the rights of Iranians, even from behind bars.

Penny Wong, Australia's Foreign Minister, applauded Narges Mohammadi's achievement and called for her immediate release, stating, "You have shown incredible courage in your fight against the oppression of women and girls in Iran."

In a separate development, over 320 Iranian political and cultural figures offered their congratulations to Mohammadi. They emphasized that opportunities like this, within the ongoing Women, Life, Freedom movement, will further reinforce the message of non-violence for women in society and all Iranians protesting against authoritarianism.

Political prisoners in the women's ward of Evin Prison also penned a letter, characterizing the the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize for Mohammadi as "a testament to her years of tireless work in advancing freedom and equality."

On Saturday, a video started circulating on social media, showing students from Ashura High School in the Sahr-e Qods district of Tehran rushing out of their school with worried parents, onlookers, and ambulances present.

The Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, a monitoring group, said many of the sick students had to be taken to hospitals urgently.

The poisonings have been happening mainly in girls' schools across Iran since last November. They began during Woman, Life, Freedom protests and have been going on until April 2023.

The first case was reported in the city of Qom, and then it spread across the country with many students ending up in hospitals, and at least one death.

Some believe regime hardliners or religious extremists might be behind the attacks. They might be doing it to punish girls who are speaking out against the regime during protests. Some even call these attacks "state terrorism."

The government, though, is trying to make it seem less serious, without pursuing the case or detaining any perpetrators. They say students get sick from stink bombs and pepper sprays, which some students use to disrupt classes.

Mohammadi has been arrested and sentenced around a dozen times in the past decade or so. Still, she has been unrelenting in her fight for democracy and human rights in Iran. She was in prison when the Nobel committee announced her as winner on Friday.

On Saturday (first day of the week in Iran) ultra hardline dailies, including those affiliated with the IRGC, attacked Mohammadi in what seemed to be a concerted effort.

“Criminals Award a Separatist, pro-Sanction Iranian,” headlined the IRGC-affiliated Javan. The daily, Jam-e Jam, owned by the state broadcaster, was slightly subtler: “For Nobel, Against the nation.” Farhikhtegan, another morning paper firmly advocating the regime’s hardline stance, had even a shorter headline: “Nobel for Shamelessness.”

The attack-lines were, of course, not new.

The Islamic Republic and its mouthpieces have always tried to blame the ‘enemy’ for all the country’s ills. A constant in the narrative is the ‘sellout activist’ – who takes money and guidance from the West and acts against the interests of her own ‘people’.

Narges Mohammadi has spent the better part of the last decade in prison. In total, she’s been sentenced to 31 years in prison and 154 lashes. She hasn’t been able to see her children since 2015, when they migrated to France with their father, political activist and former political prisoner, Taghi Rahmani.

Speaking shortly after his wife was named the 2023 Nobel Laureate, Rahmani said the award had been given to her “as a symbol” of the Women Life Freedom movement.”

The Nobel Committee said it was awarding the Peace Prize to Mohammadi “for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all.”

The announcement was met by near universal glee, from the White House to the streets of Tehran. The regime, however, was quick to denounce the prize and offer its alternative reality.

“The worthiest symbol of world peace was Qassem Soleimani,” declared the Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic, exhibiting once more the unbridgeable gulf between those who rule over and those who live in Iran.

Soleimani was a notorious military and intelligence operative who created and nursed various militant groups in the Middle East until he was killed in a US drone strike in 2020.

Mohammdi is only the second Iranian to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi won it exactly twenty years ago, in 2003. Ebadi founded the Defenders of Human Rights Centre in 2001. Mohammadi served as the Centre’s deputy head and spokesperson.

Ebadi was one of the first Iranian figures to congratulate Mohammadi: “She truly deserved this prize. She has dedicated his life to fighting for freedom, equality, and protecting human rights. And today… she is behind bars.”