Iranian Teachers' Union Calls for Cancellation of Tomaj Salehi's Death Sentence

The Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers' Trade Unions condemned the death sentence issued for Tomaj Salehi, a jailed protest rapper, in a statement and warned that if the sentence is not revoked, protest gatherings will form. Joanna Timisi, a member of the families of the victims, also told Voice of America that "the Islamic Republic wants to suppress the Woman, Life, Freedom movement with these executions." In its statement on Friday, May 7, the council described the year 1401 (2022-2023) as "a year of slaughter and overt violence by the regime against a people" who expressed their protests "in a completely peaceful manner" and wrote: "In 1402 (2023-2024), we witnessed widespread arrests, executions, dismissals, separations, and the imposition of silence on protesters, civil activists, and families of victims." This national teachers' organization of Iran added: "In 1403 (2024-2025), we are also witnessing the regime's military presence in the streets to impose its defined uniform on girls and women." The statement referred to the news of the death sentence for Tomaj Salehi, which "plunged the public into shock and concern," calling him a "great artist" who "supported the people and became their voice of protest." The Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers' Trade Unions strongly condemned Salehi's death sentence, which it described as "lacking legal legitimacy and contrary to judicial justice," and demanded the revocation of the sentence and his immediate release. The organization emphasized: "It is evident that the violent actions of the regime from 1401 until today in response to the legitimate demands of the people cannot lead to the silence and quiescence of a movement that has arisen from the regime's inefficacy in political, social, economic, cultural, and international fields over the past decades." In recent days, several activists and teachers' unions have condemned the death sentence for Tomaj Salehi. The Iranian Teachers' Union (Tehran) stated in a statement on Saturday, May 8, condemning the death sentence for Tomaj Salehi, that "the issuance of such a sentence can convey the message that the regime does not recognize any form of protest, even the most peaceful one; it arrests, imprisons, and expels demanding teachers and protesting students, dismisses workers who are bent under the burden of rampant inflation, shoots at protesters and street survivors, and considers the issuance of a death sentence for an artist as a prescription that will, in its naive imagination, extinguish the flame of protest." This union pointed out that the issuance of this verdict showed that "the judicial process does not conform to the minimum legal standards and that the regime intends to create terror and oppression in the hope of nurturing a silent, mute, and obedient populace" and added: "The widespread and extensive reaction that the unjust death sentence for Tomaj Salehi has provoked in society should be seen as a kind of referendum against the wrong policies towards protesters and various aggrieved sectors that do not recognize the legitimacy of the current governance." In this context, the Teachers' Union of Khuzestan Province noted that Tomaj Salehi "is in prison in Isfahan for the crime of exercising his citizenship rights and protesting the current situation" and wrote: "He has sung the cries of justice for himself and the sectors of society, including teachers, workers, and the youth of Iran, with a loud and pleasant critical voice." Resul Badaghi, an Iranian teachers' union activist who is imprisoned in Evin Prison in Tehran on security charges, also condemned the death sentence for this imprisoned protest singer in a statement released on Friday, writing: "It will not be long before the black clouds of despotism are cleared from the sky of Iran." Tomaj Salehi, an Iranian rapper opposed to the Islamic Republic, was arrested in early November 1401 (2022) in connection with nationwide protests and sent to prison. He was released on bail a year later but was arrested again a few days later and sent to Isfahan prison. On April 30, 1403 (2024), he was tried in the first branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Isfahan on charges of "collusion and conspiracy, and complicity in rebellion" and his death sentence was communicated to his lawyers on May 5. Joanna Timisi, the wife of Mohsen Mazloom, a Kurdish political prisoner who was executed along with three other members of the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan last February, believes that "the Islamic Republic wants to suppress the Woman, Life, Freedom movement with these executions." She emphasized that "it is time for the Iranian opposition, regardless of their tendencies, to unite so that the West no longer colludes with the Islamic Republic and recognizes the opposition as the representatives of the people." Timisi added: "Not only for Tomaj, who articulates the pain and problems of 80 million people and society with his art, but we must also take practical and field action for all political prisoners sentenced to death." She stated: "Condemning the Islamic Republic by the West after killings, executions, and suppression does not bring our loved ones back to us" and urged the U.S. and the European Union not to recognize the Islamic Republic. Timisi also considered "widespread protests inside Iran" as "important" because, in her opinion, "the government fears widespread protests." This member of the families of victims added that people should not remain silent and must focus on the regime's weaknesses. Referring to the execution of her husband, she said: "With the experience I have, I think that hashtags and Twitter storms cannot achieve anything because we are not dealing with a democratic government. We are facing the most dictatorial and brutal government in history that does not even spare a 10-year-old child." She pointed out that "the Islamic Republic wants to suppress the Woman, Life, Freedom movement" and added: "But we still see that in the all-out war that the government has launched against women in the streets with the morality police, women continue to be more determined and braver than before in voicing the Woman, Life, Freedom movement." In part of her conversation with Voice of America, she stated: "As a victim's advocate whose husband was executed without a fair trial and with baseless charges, and who has still not received his lifeless body after three months, I want to say that when a loved one is executed and taken from you forever, a sense of anger and power arises in me that today I am the voice of other political prisoners sentenced to death." She added: "Along with this sense of anger, a bad feeling also arose in me because when I hear the call to prayer, I remember the execution of Mohsen and how they put the noose around his neck and took his life. I even think about the people who issued, confirmed, and executed the sentence, and in my imagination, I judge them ten times a day." Timisi noted that "Tomaj was one of those who was inside Iran and despite all the dangers, when I asked him to support Mohsen and his friends, he did not say no and said, 'You are Kurdish, I am Bakhtiari. We know the mountain well; sometimes you are ten meters away from the summit but you don’t know; when you climb the next rock, you see the world beneath your feet and he always gave me hope." She said: "Now, not only for Tomaj, who articulates the pain and problems of 80 million people and society with his art, but we must also take practical and field action for all political prisoners sentenced to death."