The high price of dissident art in Iran

On the second anniversary of Iran's sweeping anti-regime protests, a new report by two rights groups calls for urgent international intervention to protect Iranian artists who face severe repression for their creative dissent.

Compiled by the Artistic Freedom Initiative (AFI) and Voices Unbound (VU), the 100-page document urges the global community to recognize art as a form of political resistance and to take immediate steps to safeguard artists facing persecution.

Despite condemnation from the international community, the report says dozens of Iranian artists are serving prison terms, and some face execution as a direct result of their creative work.

It reveals the various tactics used by the regime, such as censorship, surveillance, arbitrary arrests, forced confessions, travel bans, and extraterritorial repression, to silence these artists. This highlights a pattern of suppression specifically aimed at controlling artistic expression, which the report argues is a form of resistance in Iran's repressive environment.

The protests in Iran, sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Jina Amini in September 2022 after being detained by the so-called morality police for allegedly wearing "improper hijab," quickly escalated into a nationwide uprising.

The "Women, Life, Freedom" movement, as it became known, saw Iranians from across the country calling for regime-change and voicing their opposition to systemic discrimination, repression, and violence by the Iranian state.

Tehran, in turn, responded with a brutal crackdown, imprisoning tens of thousands of protestors on arbitrary grounds to punish them for their participation and discourage them from taking part in future protests. Hundreds were killed in the security apparatus’ efforts to stifle protests.

While several previous publications have documented the widespread human rights abuses committed by Iranian authorities, this new study shifts the focus to the central role of art and artists in political resistance.