ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iranian security forces on Friday arrested a Kurdish singer who performed a Kurdish revolutionary song during Newroz celebrations earlier this year, a human rights organization reported on Saturday.
Hamazeh Jafari, professionally known as Bardin Jafari, is from Gilan-e Gharb in western Iran’s Kermanshah province. He was arrested on Friday night by intelligence forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Hengaw Organization for Human Rights reported.
IRGC forces, “donning masks and armed, scaled the walls of the house without judicial authorization,” according to Hengaw, citing informed sources.
During Newroz celebrations in March, Jafari sang several Kurdish revolutionary songs, including one called Payer bemini Kurdstanehgam, meaning Rise proud, my Kurdistan.
The singer has sung Kurdish songs for other occasions such as International Women’s Day, and International Mother Language Day, as well as in support of Afrin, a Kurdish enclave in northern Syria that was seized by Turkey in a 2018 military offensive.
Jafari is also a civil activist.
Iranian security forces have carried out a number of arrests in connection with Newroz celebrations. At least 32 individuals have been arrested and hundreds of others interrogated in Kurdish-populated cities of Iran over the past month, according to Hengaw.
Since the outbreak of nationwide protests in Iran after the death of Zhina (Mahsa) Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish woman who was killed by morality police for wearing a lax hijab in September 2022, Iranian police have cracked down on artists and civil rights activists. Minorities like Kurds are disproportionately targeted, according to human rights monitors.
Last week, an Iranian court issued a death sentence for Toomaj Salehi, a 33-year-old rapper, on charges of “spreading corruption on earth.” Salehi was arrested in October 2022 for supporting the nationwide protests.
