Shervin Hajipour, Creator of the Song 'Baraye', Announces Closure of His Legal Case

Shervin Hajipour, the singer of the protest song 'Baraye', announced on Tuesday, September 24, that his legal case has been closed. In a video on his Instagram story, he mentioned that the closure of his case seems to be related to the recent media reports in Iran regarding a 'pardon' directive. On August 1, Hajipour had announced that the 3 years and 8 months prison sentence he received in the primary court for creating the piece 'Baraye' was confirmed in the appeals court. In his message on Tuesday, he expressed hope that his generation could 'live as they deserve' and added, 'Today we are supposed to live, and tomorrow will truly be too late.' The song 'Baraye' was performed and released by Hajipour in the early days following the onset of the nationwide protests in 2022 and was viewed millions of times in a very short period. Shortly after, he was arrested and sent to prison, but was temporarily released later that year. The judiciary had imposed additional punishments on this Grammy-winning singer, which included a two-year exit ban from Iran, collecting achievements of the 1979 revolution and publishing them online, summarizing several books, and creating music against the United States. However, according to the judiciary, one of the branches of the appeals court in Mazandaran province reviewed Hajipour's objection to the ruling and, due to not finding the additional punishments appropriate for the condition of the accused and society, annulled them. Behraad Ali-Konari, another protest singer, is set to serve a six-month prison sentence. In his song 'Baraye', Hajipour addresses the concerns of the Iranian people, including economic problems, class disparity, social pressures, and environmental issues, inspired by posts from Iranian users on social media. The Grammy Award for Best Song in the 'Song for Social Change' category was awarded to this single by Shervin Hajipour at the 65th edition of these awards.