The UK Government must defend its citizens around the world
Hello, readers. This week, the news in the UK has been dominated by the Budget, alongside anticipation of next week’s USA presidential election. Whilst a lot of media attention has been focused on the Chancellor’s number crunching, the Prime Minister also started the week with a proclamation of the importance of press freedom.
Writing for The Guardian on Monday, in an article coinciding with the News Media Association’s week-long Journalism Matters campaign, Keir Starmer vowed to protect journalism, the “lifeblood of our democracy”, and stressed the vital role of the media in holding politicians such as himself to account. “And yet this is not a given. All around the world, journalists put themselves at risk in defence of those values,” he wrote, paying tribute to press who have been killed or detained whilst operating in war zones and authoritarian regimes.
It’s heartening to see this strong defence of free speech from the Prime Minister. But around the world, we are still seeing prisoners of conscience imprisoned for simply speaking their mind, some of whom have British citizenship.
This week marked the two-year anniversary of the arrest of Toomaj Salehi, an Iranian rapper who refused to stop singing his political protest songs criticising Iranian government policy. He was sentenced to death on 24 April 2024, and while this has thankfully been overturned, he remains behind bars. This week, his cousin Arezou Eghbali wrote a piece for Index, calling on the international community to demand his release.
Perhaps one of the most high-profile cases of unjust imprisonment overseas is that of British-Iranian national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. Spending nearly six years in detention in Iran, her situation was made worse by false comments made by former foreign secretary Boris Johnson about the purpose of her visit to Iran. You can read an article from Zaghari-Ratcliffe below, where she calls for the release of Salehi.
Then there is Alaa Abd el-Fattah, an Egyptian-British software developer and pro-democracy political activist, who was due to be released following a five-year prison sentence in Egypt on 29 September, yet remains behind bars. His family have spoken out about the lack of government support he has received, and his mother is currently on hunger strike. “I’m keeping it up until Alaa is free or I’m taken to hospital in a terrible state,” she told the BBC last week.
When he was shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy criticised the Conservatives and called for “serious diplomatic consequences” if Abd el-Fattah was not granted a consular visit and ultimately freed – but since becoming Foreign Secretary, he has not raised the case publicly. A Foreign Office spokesperson told the BBC that the government is prioritising his release: “We continue to raise his case at the highest levels of the Egyptian government.”
Another British citizen who remains behind bars is Jimmy Lai – a Hong Kong political figure and activist, who was arrested in 2020 for fraud and involvement in pro-democracy protests. Whilst Starmer has said that securing his release is a “priority”, Lai’s lawyer has criticised past and current governments, and says that David Lammy has failed to meet with herself or Lai’s son to discuss the matter. She says that David Cameron is the only foreign secretary of the past five to meet with Lai’s legal team. “This is a disappointing and flawed approach that stymies crucial efforts to free Jimmy Lai and fundamentally undermines the government’s official position that he must be released,” she told the BBC.
As we mark two years since Toomaj Salehi’s arrest, we reflect on all the political prisoners globally who have been unjustly punished for challenging their governments or speaking out against injustice. In doing so, we return to Starmer’s optimistic statement about championing free speech and ensuring politicians are held to account. Let us hope his new government uses this rhetoric and its diplomatic power to fight for its citizens around the world.
Celebrating the music of Toomaj Salehi
For many of us, specifically those who have experienced prison, Toomaj Salehi is the symbol of resistance against an autocratic regime’s oppression, and whose honest and unapologetic voice cuts through the sheer reality of a society suffering from repression and corruption.
To us, condemning Salehi to death for his songs and lyrics is the equivalent of declaring war against the people of Iran.
The first time I heard Salehi was right at the beginning of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement. He seemed like an ordinary man with a real voice in his music, suddenly thrown into the national and international spotlight while holding onto his truth. His music showed the power of ordinary voices in Iran and beyond.
Salehi has long challenged the Islamic Republic of Iran’s establishment. Through his songs and lyrics, he has condemned the state’s political repression, injustice, corruption and violation of women’s rights for many years. As a result, he has gained fans amongst Iranians inside and outside the country while managing to outrage the government.
Salehi condemns the Islamic state for its corruption, which increases the gap in society where the poor get poorer and the rich become richer. In his song Normal, he speaks bluntly about a rampant poverty which is inflicted on a resource-rich country. Salehi articulates how sanctions, as well as self-inflicted international isolation, have resulted in a huge part of society hardly being able to make ends meet while those in power are busy building tower blocks and pocketing wealth at home and abroad.
Salehi tells of his ambitions for living in a normal country, where people can have the freedom to speak and criticise their political leaders and to defend their basic rights without being harassed, prosecuted or imprisoned.
At the heat of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement in Iran in September 2022, following the death of Mahsa Amini while in the custody of the morality police, Salehi released several songs in support of the movement, which increased his popularity amongst the people but also the anger of the authorities. He was arrested, and he was released on bail only after the Supreme Court overturned the charges in November 2023.
The state has systematically used forced confession to silence and repress dissent for decades and on his release, Salehi posted a YouTube video in which he described the torture and forced confession he went through while in detention. Three days later, the security forces raided his house in Isfahan and arrested him again. Salehi was sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court of Isfahan in April 2024.
After an Index-led campaign the Supreme Court ruled out the death penalty but at the time of publication, Salehi remains behind bars. Like many others, he finds himself trapped in this circle of corruption and power. Freedom for Salehi is a world where he is allowed to articulate his vision without being punished; in which the government is willing to improve people’s daily lives, and a regime which does not indoctrinate its citizens and ensures they have the means to live dignified lives.
Through his music, he tries to be the voice of those terrified to speak up, and it is only fair to echo his voice beyond his country’s borders.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is a former hostage in Iran and author of the forthcoming book A Yard of Sky: A Story of Love, Resistance and Hope. Below is a translation of Toomaj Salehi’s song Normal.
Normal
By Toomaj Salehi
Yes! Yes Sir! Life is normal
A labourer’s annual wage is worth a dinner abroad
Yes! Of course, Sir! Life is normal
We don’t dare say otherwise, lest we get in trouble
Yes! Yes Sir! Life is normal
Some have to sleep in tombs, others own 10 high-rises
Yes! Of course, Sir! Life is normal
We don’t ask for what is ours, lest it be a crime
Sir, have you seen down there? The empty plates?
You are so enlightened, have you seen the dark city?
Have you seen these quarters where the waists are so narrowed, from your blood-sucking
These quarters where you dump your waste from above
Have you seen how different we are?
Be my guest, no need to buy tickets to watch
Kid! Go back to your room, you are scaring the gentleman
He is not used to seeing ragged and worn clothes, not even from afar
Are you watching Sir?
You shine like a star, with the glimmering light of the ones you executed
Instead of being reprimanded, you have been promoted for your mistakes
You cut off any dissident at will
Sir! My words are sour, have some sweets to wash off the taste
Here, people are just alive, they don’t have a life
Our kids sleep with empty stomachs
Sorry, how do you sleep with a clear conscience again?
Yes! Yes Sir! Life is normal
A labourer’s annual wage is worth a dinner abroad
Yes! Of course, Sir! Life is normal
We don’t dare say otherwise, lest we get in trouble
Yes! Yes Sir! Life is normal
Some have to sleep in tombs, others own 10 high-rises
Yes! Of course, Sir! Life is normal
We don’t ask for what is ours, lest it be a crime
While the rest of the world is supporting their citizens
Our government denied responsibility and kept complaining
It called protesters insurrectionists
Did it stop at imprisonment? No, it committed atrocities (as well)
No doubt “We broke records”!
We are the only country, where the (COVID) vaccine was different for the rich and poor
In the age of science, women are beaten for their beauty
Thrown in the back of a police van, taken to unnamed prisons
Our shopping cart is empty, no more oil left to export
The rest of the world are shooting for the moon and mars, while we are in the abyss
We are the dead who can’t die
Since we can’t pay for the burial and the tombstone
I’m ringing the alarms, hoping ears burn
We have people who are on the verge of death from starvation
They have kissed the lips of death, where are they?
Perhaps someone should sing them lullabies
Yes! Yes Sir! Life is normal
A labourer’s annual wage is worth a dinner abroad
Yes! Of course, Sir! Life is normal
We don’t dare say otherwise, lest we get in trouble
Yes! Yes Sir! Life is normal
Some have to sleep in tombs, others own 10 high-rises
Yes! Yes Sir! Life is normal
We don’t ask for what is ours, lest it be a crime
We are constantly worried about the rent
We are scared for roofless schools in the desert
A bird can’t fly without food and water
Is this a normal life, or are we sick?
Cheap products cost a fortune
Labourer is working overtime, yet the car he wants to buy is getting further away
In this corrupt cycle, he is struggling
The regime sacrifices a million for one
For the deeply corrupt regime apologists in the US
Those who compensate for their inferiority by debauchery
There is no Left and Right here, they are all the same
We say we are trapped in a swamp, they say they hope to reform it
Is there anything that makes you feel ashamed?
Do you think citizens are your slaves?
You expect people not to eat bread so yours is buttered?
Did I confuse you by calling you Sir?
Oil tankers in a queue, on their way
Red tulip covered lands, green dollar bills
The poverty ridden city, the only sound is the cry of death
To hell with the regime officials
We are all united, We want freedom
Locked hands, human chains
We are all united, We want freedom
The power of unity is ours
Oil tankers in a queue, on their way
Red tulip covered lands, green dollar bills
The poverty ridden city, the only sound is the cry of death
To hell with the regime officials
Toomaj Salehi is an Iranian rapper who received an Index Freedom of Expression Award in 2023. A year later after he was sentenced to death in Iran. Index launched a petition signed by leading cultural figures calling for his death sentence to be immediately and unconditionally quashed and for him to be released from detention, with all other charges dismissed. At the time of publication the Supreme Court has reversed his death sentence, but he is still behind bars. Lyrics translated by TurfHeadClic on Lyricstranslate.com
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