Nazanin Nour, an actress in Los Angeles, has gone viral for her video advocating for Iranian singer Shervin Hajipour, who faces a prison sentence for lyrics in his Grammy-winning song.
Nour's latest video explains Hajipur's case, highlighting the injustices for the artist expressing himself.
“Grammy Winning Iranian Artist Shervin Hajipur who in 2022 won for best song for social change released a video today saying that he has to report to prison to begin serving a sentence that stems from this song,” Nour said in the video.
Nour has grown her Instagram following to over 280,000, often using her platform to educate followers about issues in Iran.
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“It became something that I’m just passionate about doing and it became kind of my way to support the people of Iran,” Nour said. “I just thought if people can just relate and understand what’s going on, and the freedoms that they enjoy here that other people don’t have, maybe they can empathize more.”
Hajipour said on Instagram Tuesday that he’ll soon begin a 3-year, 8-month sentence for the lyrics in his Grammy-winning song "Baraye," a song he wrote during Iran’s Women, Life, Freedom protest in 2022.
“All he did was take tweets from Iranians that were posted at the beginning of the Women, Life, Freedom protest where they’re just talking about why they’re protesting,” Nour said. “For the environment, for the injustices that are happening, for the right to let my hair blow in the wind.”
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“They said well you are inciting murder and violence with these lyrics and so now you’re going to have to come serve this time,” Nour added. “And in the video, he says I couldn’t have protested in more peaceful manner than by song.”
In her Los Angeles apartment Thursday, Nour wore a shirt pushing for Iranian Rapper Toomaj Salehi, an Iranian Rapper who is still in prison and once faced a death sentence for a rap criticizing Iran’s government.
“Can you imagine Kendrick Lamar or Tupac when he was alive being put in Prison by President Biden because they didn’t like his anti-government lyrics for example?” Nour said.
Hajipur said he is still doing all he can to avoid going to prison. The country did lift his travel ban, which gives him the option to leave, but in his Instagram video, he said he wants to stay there with his family, especially his father who is ill. He knows if he leaves he likely cannot return.
As a fellow artist, the news has been devasting to Nour, and is heartbroken for Shevrin who may soon head to prison.
“The way that they treat artists is absolutely horrendous,” Nour said. “To see him breaking down and his voice cracking for something that I can very easily do here myself with absolutely no trouble and problem, it’s a really heartbreaking, horrendous feeling and I just hope that he’s going to be ok.”
