A new 100-page report, published this week by two American advocacy groups, details how Iranian artists have increasingly been targeted in systemic attacks on their freedom of expression.
Titled I Create; I Resist: Iranian Artists on the Frontline of Social Change and released on 10 September, the report was compiled by the Artistic Freedom Initiative (AFI) in partnership with Voices Unbound (VU) and UC Berkeley School of Law.
The publication marks the second anniversary of the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Jina Amini in police custody, following her arrest for wearing an ‘improper hijab’. Amini’s death in 2022 sparked the ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ protest movement across Iran, during which time government security forces are estimated to have killed more than 500 protestors. Iranian artists, musicians, photographers and filmmakers based around the world have since responded by creating work inspired by the movement. Several of these figures are interviewed in the report on their experiences, including photojournalist Yalda Moaiery and multidisciplinary artist Nazanin Noroozi.
The report highlights the increased use of censorship, online surveillance, work bans, task forces and punitive measures (including arrest and prosecution) to attack artists and activists that followed the protest movement. AFI and VU together call on Iran to immediately put a stop to this campaign of persecution.
As The Washington Post‘s former Tehran bureau chief Jason Rezaian writes, ‘I Create; I Resist serves as an important reminder that there is no real victory for any singular artist until all Iranian artists that have been arbitrarily imprisoned for their work are unconditionally released.’
