Dissident rapper Vafadar released from Tehran's Evin Prison

Iranian rapper Vafa Ahmadpour, better known as Vafadar, was released from Tehran's Evin Prison on Sunday, over eight months after he was arrested on charges of propaganda against the Islamic Republic.

Vafadar was arrested on May 9, 2024, after the release of a music video titled “Standby” on his Instagram pages, whose lyrics said the Iranian people would retake Iran from the Islamic Republic.

Danial Moghaddam, the other singer of the song, was also arrested in May but released in July.

​​The repression of rappers in Iran has continued unabated over the past few years. Toomaj Salehi was the most prominent rapper who was sentenced to death for his songs but the verdict was later overturned, and he was released on December 1, 2024.

Another dissident rapper, Saman Yassin, was also sentenced to death on charges including "enmity against God, assembly and collusion to act against national security."

But the verdict was later overturned, and he was sentenced to serve five years in prison in exile in Kerman province in southeastern Iran.

Yassin arrived in Berlin on Friday after being temporarily released on medical furlough.

"Woman, Life, Freedom forever," Yasin wrote in a post on X, sharing a video of his arrival in Berlin airport, without providing further details of how he had left Iran.

Mehdi Yarrahi, a prominent pop music composer and singer, was also handed a verdict of two years and eight months of imprisonment along with 74 lashes over his support for the 2022 protest movement as well as his songs against the clerical rule.