What Mahdi Yarahy Tells Us

Reports indicate that the case of Mahdi Yarahy, whose voice resonated in the revolutionary cries of 'Women, Life, Freedom,' has been concluded with 74 lashes. But is it truly concluded? A simple look at the accusations that have targeted Mahdi Yarahy over the years, rendering him unable to work and subjecting him to repeated interrogations and imprisonment, suggests that this case undoubtedly remains open. What has inspired Mahdi Yarahy's stirring melodies is everything that has happened and continues to happen to Iran and its people, from the south where he was born to the north, east, and west. The pulse of those melodies, which have led to Mahdi Yarahy's punishments, has surged with the heartbeat of the people. A review of these banned songs from the early 2010s to the present clearly expresses the individual and collective repression that the people of Iran have lived through, fallen, and risen again. In the early years of the 2010s, after being summoned by the security police for supporting popular protests in favor of Karun, Mahdi Yarahy sang in his song 'Khaak' (2015) about the air pollution in Ahvaz: 'The air gets worse every day / Water less / All people can do is wait / Can nothing be done for the soil that suffers so much / A city that has gold in its veins / Let its blood be spent on itself... / A soil that gives oil to the world / Let a few drops be spent on itself...' After expressing solidarity with the workers' protests at the National Steel Company in December 2018, which led to Yarahy's summons, he questioned the prolonged, senseless Iran-Iraq war in his song 'Paarah Sang,' which brought nothing but loss to the people. 'I don’t know why I can’t understand this / Why there was so much delay in ending the war / Another generation went to war and didn’t return / Went and went and didn’t return... / Someone tell me where we are / What should we pay for the war / Why don’t we have life yet...' In the years that followed, Mahdi Yarahy, like many in the Iranian nation, increasingly felt the absence of rulers and the emptiness of the promises made by reformists. After the protests in December 2017, he wrote a letter to then-President Hassan Rouhani, complaining about the officials' actions regarding the problems and their treatment of dissenters, expressing the helplessness of the people and their fragmentation. To empathize with the flood-affected people of the south in 2019, he sang in 'Al-Nakhl': 'We sail through our sea of suffering and sing for the marsh / And what could be more beautiful than to sing and play with the sun’s accent / Only you, wandering wind, hear our pain.' In the same year, after the suppression of the nationwide protests in November, Yarahy sang in 'Sarsam': 'The judge increases when there is no justice / We are all rightfully plaintiffs / We fix our eyes on each other's executions / Unaware that tomorrow we are the accused.' Mahdi Yarahy actively supported the protesters against the tragic shooting down of the Ukrainian plane, making his voice heard that the Revolutionary Guards must be criticized. In the song 'Akhs Shod' for the victims of this tragedy, he sang: 'The cold winter hit this house so that we become alone with memories / Where else can we go to be together again / I didn’t even believe my fall for a moment / I buried my coffin with my own hands / My life became a photo, my moments became a photo / It became a photo.' How did the rulers react to this complaining voice? Only with summons and prohibitions. However, Mahdi Yarahy did not flinch. He set aside fear and moved towards the light of truth. In the song 'Lakposht,' he sang: 'Oh, we who are in this cycle of pain / When the idol breaks, we turn to it / Complaining about the axe wound is our ancestral way / The sorrow of our freedom is all our joy.' Throughout this journey, Mahdi Yarahy came to understand the fundamental position of Iranian women's struggle for rights and freedom. He listened with his heart to the voices of women rising up. In the song 'Dokhtaraneh,' dedicated to Sahar Khodayari, the Blue Girl who set herself on fire in protest against the ban on women entering stadiums, he sang: 'Calm down, oh Blue Girl / Calm down, on the moonlit night / Calm down, oh girl of the nights / Calm down, oh girl, tomorrow the clouds that darkened your world / Will rain and wash your tears / Open your eyes to the sun / That speaks to you of the rainbow / After the wild storm's attack / It speaks of a sky.' And as it should be and happened, understanding the central position of women's uprising for the liberation of the Iranian people turned Mahdi Yarahy's songs, with the poetry of poets like Mona Barzoui whose name we know, and others whose names have been kept secret, into lasting verses in the collective memory. In this way, in the song of life, a magnificent tableau of the Iranian people's uprising is depicted, intertwined with the bloody past of these four decades. 'By the curse of the receiver of mothers / By the cry scattered across the sky / By the rage roaring from Khavaran / By the rebellion of the glorious youth / Lift your head from under the yoke of slavery / Raise the song of life! / Free your heart from the lump in your throat / You too, tell the world / Woman, life, freedom / Step up, step up, to the overturned throne! / Splash your hands and face in the waterfall of blood / For Mahsa, for Nika, for rage and blood / Look at the November that turned red with the blood of the slain / In the song of women, the flow of sisterhood and brotherhood and love was sung in the face of oppressors, which spread across Iran in neighborhoods and streets, sealed with the blood of hundreds of freedom-seeking youth. 'In your name, which is our code name / The night of Mahsa, the dawn of a hundred voices / Sing, so that the city becomes the song of women / So that this homeland becomes a homeland.'... 'My brother, who is my fortress / Like a bright shade / His running, his broad chest / Is like a refuge and shelter...' Here, the gender segregation enforced by the rulers' Sharia law collapses. The freedom of women is the freedom of the homeland, and the realization of the people's rights depends on women's attainment of freedom and human rights. Therefore, it is not surprising that the song 'Rousarito Dar Biar' that Mahdi Yarahy continues to sing incites the rulers' anger even more: 'Take off your scarf / The sun is setting / Take off your scarf, your scent makes the air good / Take off your scarf / Let your hair down / My love, don’t be afraid / Dance / Confess to the kiss / Woman, life, freedom.' The reality is that compulsory hijab is the ideological flag of the oppressive and plundering order of the rulers. This is why Mahsa's death sparked a nationwide uprising, in which past protest and rebellious movements were interconnected, highlighting the fundamental relationship between the struggle against compulsory hijab and other social and political demands. Today, even the rulers admit that despite the revival of the morality police after the bloody suppression of protests, and despite introducing new tricks with huge budgets, they cannot control the optional hijab. Just as they will not be able to prevent social protests that increasingly reveal the people's dissatisfaction. They are also unable to silence those who stand with the people. Mahdi Yarahy's statements after the flogging ceremony are clear evidence of this reality. He proclaimed that freedom has a cost and declared that he recognizes the value of the awareness he has reached and stands alongside the rights-seeking women, turning his back on gender-based privilege. What happened to Mahdi Yarahy once again shows that gender-based repression undermines the foundations of a system that deprives all citizens of their human rights; and at the top of the power hierarchy in the velayat-e faqih system, a power mafia rules over the lives and properties of the people. Mahdi Yarahy did not allow his case to be closed in the manner they intended. He transformed the shameful punishment of the rulers into a case against oppression and tyranny. A proud gift on the eve of March 8, International Women's Day.