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First ladyJill Bidenmade a surprise appearance at the65th Grammy AwardsSunday night, to publicly recognize “a song that responds to the social issues of our time and has the potential for positive global impact.”
Hajipour’s song “Baraye” has become the unofficial protest anthem of Iran, after the death of a 22-year-old woman in police custody has sparked international controversy and global calls for change.
“She was arrested and taken into police custody for what they call an ‘educational and reorientation class,'” Thomas-Greenfield said. “Some hours later, she was transferred to the hospital in a coma and she died two days later.”
Iranian women and men have taken to the streetsto protest Amini’s deathin the weeks and months since, facing violence and even death themselves as the eyes of the world have turned to the morality police, which the U.S. State Department has described as an organization that enforces “restrictions on freedom of expression.”
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Songwriter Hajipour was among those arrested (he wasaccused of spreading anti-government propaganda), as Dr. Biden noted in her speech at the Grammys.
“Shervin was arrested but this song continues to resonate around the world with its powerful theme—women, life, freedom,” she said.
Dr. Biden, who also presented the award forSong of the Year, called Hajipour’s song a “powerful and poetic call for freedom and women’s rights.”
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Secretary of StateAntony Blinkenannounced in October that the U.S. had imposed sanctions both on Iran’s morality police and on “senior security officials who have engaged in serious human rights abuses.”
“These officials oversee organizations that routinely employ violence to suppress peaceful protesters and members of Iranian civil society, political dissidents, women’s rights activists, and members of the Iranian Baha’i community,” the Treasury Department said in a statement at the time.
Meanwhile, Tehran-based Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA)estimatesthat at least 527 protestors have died in Iran since the protests began.
source: people.com
