From his safe house, Shahin Najafi fears a fatwa over his single's nod to a Shiite icon. By Omid Memarian.
Just days after the release of a song that led to heated reactions in Iran and a bounty on his head, German-based Iranian rapper Shahin Najafi told The Daily Beast that he is not going to apologize for his provocative work, as he does not see it as an insult. He accused Tehran's "ruling system" of stirring up religious outrage.
All week, conservative news websites were viciously attacking Najafi, including Baztab-Emrooz, which accused him of having become communist and singing controversial and "derogatory" songs just to get asylum, even though he is already a German resident.
On Wednesday, Iran's semiofficial Fars News Agency, which is known for its ties to the Revolutionary Guards' Intelligence Unit, wrote that a ranking ayatollah, Safi Golpayegani, had issued a fatwa about Najafi's alleged apostasy, meaning that his killing would be "necessary" according to Sharia law.
The fatwa, however, was dated two weeks prior to the release of Najafi's song and did not mention any names, including his.
After news of the alleged fatwa was released, a Facebook page started signing up volunteers or assassins ready to kill the singer, which received more than 600 likes before Facebook removed the page.
"Their aim is to create fear, intimidation, and terror among people and for me, so that I don't continue with my work and people become fearful that they could be persecuted for listening to my music. Rest assured that if they can do anything against me they would not hold back," Najafi added.
A journalist in Tehran told The Daily Beast that when talk about religion gets risky, even nonreligious intellectuals become conservative. "In Iranian society, we are trained to fear God, so speaking directly against religious representations is not totally accepted, even if we lack belief in our hearts," he said, on condition of anonymity for security concerns.
"In Najafi's case, the situation won't have the same proportions as the Salman Rushdie case, as the cleric behind Rushdie's case was Ayatollah Khomeini," the journalist added.
Rushdie, a British-Indian novelist, became the center of a heated controversy in many Muslim countries after the publication of his fourth novel, The Satanic Verses (1988). In 1989, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa requiring Rushdie's execution.
Under Article 226 of Iran's Penal Code, committing intentional murder incurs a sentence of "retribution" (qesas-e nafs)—in other words, execution—"provided the murdered person did not deserve to die (mahdour al-dam) in accordance with Islamic Law." Individuals accused of murder have often used this defense, claiming in court that their victim deserved to die. The existence of fatwas calling for the killing of an individual could be used as the basis of such a defense. This provision is, however, absent from the Penal Code Iran approved in 2012, though apparently not yet signed into law.
"Iranian judicial authorities should spell out that that the concept of 'deserving of death' cannot be used as a justification for murder; and that anyone suspected of inciting, planning, committing or aiding murder, whether the killing takes place in Iran or elsewhere, [should be] brought to justice in a trial which fully meets international fair trial standards, without recourse to the death penalty," Dyke said.
In addition to Iran's religious and pro-government extremists, some regime critics and political activists outside Iran have also called Najafi's song insulting and have accused him of extremism, insulting sanctities, and providing an excuse for Tehran to further suppress artists. However, many believe that the way Iranians react to this song could be a good indication of their respect for the principle of freedom of expression.
When asked whether he would change the song if he were to sing it again, Najafi told The Daily Beast that he would not. "I might have added new things to it," he said jokingly.