Underground rap singer Hossein Eblis was arrested in Mashhad on 15 December 2014. Security forces confiscated several of his musical instruments and sound equipment, reported IranWire, quoting Khorasan Newspaper. According to a police report, Hossein Eblis, 27, frequently mocked the language of authorities in his songs, many of which contain …

“Rights for musicians are extremely weak in Iran”, wrote Tooka Zokaie, a 20-year-old Iranian-American piano teacher and speech coach who travelled to Iran and unintentionally broke the law: “When I went to Iran this summer, almost everything I participated in related to music was illegal. I played piano to male …

15 November 2014 marks the 33rd anniversary of the Day of the Imprisoned Writer. PEN International launched the first Day of the Imprisoned Writer in 1981, with the aim of focusing much-needed global attention on imprisoned, murdered or otherwise harassed writers. Since then, the Day of the Imprisoned Writer has …

The fourteenth commemoration ceremony for the passing of Iranian poet Ahmad Shamloo was interrupted by Islamic Republic security forces. HRANA reports that the ceremony was organised by Iran’s Writers’ Association and was held on Thursday 25 July 2014. Source: www.payvand.com

Steven W. Hawkins, the executive director of Amnesty International USA, and writer and film director Gregory Nava have written an article in Huffington Post’s The Blog about the silencing of filmmakers and other artists in countries such as China, Iran and Russia. “Freedom of expression is both an essential human …

Iranian police have arrested three people who appeared in an online video of young men and women singing and dancing in support of the country’s World Cup football team, the official IRNA news agency reported on 23 June 2014. The music video was produced by the London-based Ajam Band and …

Female musicians are not allowed to go onstage and give live performances in Isfahan. Mohammad Qotbi, the head of the Isfahan Culture and Guidance administration and also a member of the clergy, compared music bands to the national football team, saying that just as there are substitutes for players on …

Sasan Soleymani, who produced the video of Iranian youth in Tehran dancing to the Pharrell Williams song ‘Happy’, remains in custody in Rejai Shahr Prison, even though all six people who appeared in the video have been released on bail. » See on  www.payvand.com » And on  www.iranhumanrights.org Related post on artsfreedom.freemuse.org: …

Six young Iranians were arrested for recording Tehran version of Pharrell Williams’s ‘Happy’. They have since been released again. The video was published on youtube.com on 20 May 2014. Age: 25 Crime: Happiness About a month ago, six Iranian boys and girls (seen in this video) danced to the famous …

After trying and failing for years to obtain a publishing license for his novel, Iranian writer and journalist Mohammad Motlagh finally had enough. Instead of taking the Culture Ministry’s no for answer, on April 28, Motlagh began posting his novel – one chapter at a time – on Facebook. In …