Iran Archives - Index on Censorship

We’re Still Alive: Resistance, Solidarity and Hip-Hop in Iran

9 May 2025

Join Index on Censorship and Some Great Reward for a Listening Party celebrating the music, resistance and solidarity of Iranian rapper, Toomaj Salehi.

Toomaj is a Farsi-language rapper who has never shied away from using his music to stand up for those raising their voices calling for human rights and democracy in Iran. For his courage and music, he has long been persecuted by the Iranian regime – facing harassment, surveillance, imprisonment and a death sentence as a result.

Toomaj has been persecuted for his music so there is no more powerful way to stand in solidarity with him than to celebrate his music. That is why we are inviting music fans to come together on the southside of Glasgow to share his songs, learn about his life and stand in solidarity with him and everyone in Iran standing up for human rights and democracy. This is not a ticketed event – just turn up.

About Toomaj Salehi’s persecution

Over the last four years, Toomaj has faced continuous judicial harassment, including arrest and imprisonment. He has been more intensely targeted following the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody September 2022, when he became a vocal supporter of the Women, Life, Freedom movement. After publishing songs in support of the courageous protesters and taking part in the protest himself he was arrested and sentenced to over 6 years in prison. On 18 November 2023, Toomaj was released on bail. But his freedom was not to last.

Days later he was rearrested after he uploaded a video to YouTube documenting his treatment and torture while in detention. In April 2024, an Iranian court sentenced him to death on charges of “corruption on earth”. It took the Supreme Court to intervene to quash the death sentence, leading to Toomaj being released from prison in December 2024.

Celebrating Iranian Resistance

14 Aug 2024

Tuesday 17 September 2024 | 1730-21:30 | Colours Hoxton

An evening of censored cinema and culture in Iran, feat. film screening of Jafar Panahi’s “3 Faces”, live Q&A and Toomaj Salehi’s music

On 16 September 2022 the world was shocked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini. Her murder was a reminder of the brutal side of Iran, as was the crushing of dissent that followed. Despite the crackdown people did and still do resist, taking great personal risks in their quest to improve the rights landscape of Iran. Index on Censorship celebrates these dissidents and so, as we remember Amini, we want to spotlight them too.

With that in mind please join us for a night of Iranian culture and protest. The event will feature afilmscreening of Jafar Panahi’s 3 Faces, a panel discussion, and standing in solidarity with the rapper Toomaj Salehi, who is one of the most outspoken critics of the regime today.

Two years on we know the authorities would rather that we forgot about those who wish for a different Iran and that we would forget the name Amini. We will not. Instead we stand in solidarity with them and will continue our quest to raise awareness about how rights, especially around free expression, continue to be crushed.

Book your ticket to the event here.

Film Screening + Q&A
Iranian film director Jafar Panahi made his critically acclaimed and award-winning 3 Faces (2018) while being banned from filmmaking for 20 years and forbidden from leaving Iran. The film explores themes of womanhood and patriarchal rural Iran through the form of road trip adventure. The screening will be followed by a Q&A about cinema and censorship in Iran, plus a wider exploration of how cinema is used to control the global narrative.

#FreeToomaj
Join Index to stand in solidarity with Iranian musician Toomaj Salehi, as we listen to his powerful music campaigning for women’s rights and justice in Iran. Musician and creative practitioner, Roshi Nasehi, will read some of Toomaj’s lyrics as an expression of solidarity.

About Toomaj Salehi
Arrested, detained and imprisoned for his solidarity with Iranian women who courageously took to the streets in Iran after the death of Mahsa Amini, Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi was tortured, released, rearrested and sentenced to death for his lyrics supporting anti-government protests and advocating for women’s rights. Although the death sentence has since been overturned, he remains in prison. Index continues to campaign for his release.

Free copies of the latest Index magazine will be available for all attendees.

Book your ticket to the event here.

With thanks to SAGE (magazine sponsor)

With thanks to Colours Hoxton (venue partner)

Woman Life Freedom with Malu Halasa & Ramita Navai

12 Sep 2023

Wednesday 4 October, London

Lessons from Iran one year on from Mahsa Amini’s death – with Saqi Books and Hatchards Piccadilly

BOOK TICKETS HERE

Join Malu Halasa and Ramita Navai at Hatchards Piccadilly for an event chaired by Index on Censorship editor-in-chief Jemimah Steinfeld to celebrate the launch of “Woman Life Freedom”.

The murder of Mahsa Amini on 16 September 2022 by Iran’s morality police sent shockwaves throughout the country. Protests led by women spread to ninety cities in all of Iran’s provinces. Videos on social media showed women in the streets with their hair uncovered, burning headscarves and even cutting their own long hair. Men soon joined the protests. Schoolgirls defaced portraits of religious leaders. Cries of Zan Zendegi Azadi in Farsi – Woman Life Freedom – echoed in mass demonstrations, which continue today. Woman Life Freedom captures this historic moment in artwork and first-person accounts by courageous women, including those too scared to reveal their true identities because of a repressive and vindictive regime. Featuring art, music and photography from the protests, this moving and inspiring anthology exposes hardship, hope and empowerment in modern-day Iran.

As part of the launch of Woman Life Freedom, this event will discuss the Iran protests over the last year and will ask what has happened. With reports of the morality police back on the streets and protesters locked away, some even executed, what positive change has occurred, if any? The event will also launch Index’s Autumn Magazine, which covers the rise of the religious right, religious blasphemy and its impact on freedom of expression, with a focus on Iran amongst other countries.

All welcome!

Tickets include £5 off the price of Woman Life Freedom purchased this evening and a free copy of Index on Censorship’s magazine. Book your tickets here today.