Legal Advocacy Groups Call for Iran to End Campaign Targeting Dissident Artists

A new report co-published by two legal U.S.-based advocacy groups calls on Iran to stop a years-long campaign to persecute artists, a push that grew more intense after the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody spurred nationwide protests in 2022.

The report, which was done by the Artistic Freedom Initiative (AFI) and Voices Unbound (VU) in partnership with Berkley Law, focuses on the country’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance’s role in increasing suppression of artistic speech after the uprising.

Titled I Create, I Resist—Iranian Artists on the Frontline of Social Change, the report accuses the government of orchestrating a 2022 task force aimed at targeting and surveilling Iranian cultural figures with sizable platforms.

AFI and VU called on governments abroad to be alert to the growing needs for asylum, as many persecuted artists have been forced to flee the country since 2022 and others have been jailed for dissenting speech.

A group of musicians, filmmakers, artists, and writers were deemed potential threats as part of the 2022 campaign. The culture ministry handed down fines, travel bans, and arrests to more than 140 people as part of the crackdown. In response, PEN America called on the UN to investigate detainments that might be unlawful.  

Among the most high-profile Iranians to flee the country as a result of an artistic project is director Mohammad Rasoulof. In May, Rasoulof fled Iran after receiving an eight-year sentence for producing the film The Seed of the Sacred Fig, which won a jury prize at Cannes Film Festival. In a speech at the festival, Rasoulof condemned the censorship campaign, saying “people of Iran are held hostage… Do not allow the Islamic Republic to do this to its own people.”