Mehdi Rajabian

Mehdi Rajabian
Born	October 1989 Sari, Iran
Nationality	Iranian
Education	Music
Occupation	Musician
Years active	2007–present

Mehdi Rajabian (Persian :مهدی رجبیان) is born in October 1989 in Sari (a city in north of Iran) who is the composer, the musician and the founder of the website Barg music.

Personal life

He learnt the hierarchies of the Iranian music during a few years commencing the learning from the masters of the traditional music and recorded and played several albums, e.g. "Research Album of the History of Iran narrated by Setar" as the sitarist, composer and producer.^[1][2][3] He has also worked as the sound recordist and the sound recording director in the several music albums. Rajabian was also a student in relation with his professional music activity; after he was arrested in 2013, he was ceased on continuing education in this field.^{[4][5] [6]}

Activities and arrest

Mehdi Rajabian officially participated and monitored the quality of the publication and the music composition.^[7] He was arrested by Iranian security forces on 5 October 2013 in his office and transferred to Ward 2A of Evin Prison^[8][9] and each one was sentenced more than two months in solitary confinement,^[10][11] while this arrest ceased his personal project.^[12] When Mehdi Rajabian was arrested, he was recording "Research Album of History of Iran narrated by Setar", his personal studio, all recordings, hard drives of recorded music were confiscated and the project became silent.^[13][14]

Reactions against arrest

The arrest of Mehdi Rajabian followed many reactions as Saeid Boumedouha's lecture, the head of Middle East and North Africa Amnesty International Organization can be noted in this regard.^[15] After the protests, Amnesty International via all of its branches around the world^[16][17][18] launched a campaign and acquired to release this artist and then more than twenty thousand artists across the world joined this campaign.^[19][20][21] However, before that, the international Free Muse, as the most important institution to track the status of the music artists around the world, launched a campaign and requested all artists in the world to accompany Mehdi Rajabian and protest the prison sentence of this artist.^[22] In this campaign, the International PEN Club, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, the Council of Europe Artists, Songwriters and Composers Council of Europe and twenty other associations joined with Free Muse.^[23][24] Of course, before that, the annual report of Ahmed Shaheed, the UN representative for Human Rights in Iran and the letters of more than four hundred musicians and media members were handed to Ali Jannati, Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance.^{[25][26][27][28][29]}

Trial sentence

The case of Mehdi Rajabian was investigated in summer 2015 in Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court by Judge Mughiseh and finally he was charged of unauthorized art activity and insulting religious sanctities and advertisement against the regime and sentenced for six-year prison and fine. This sentence was on appeal to three years imprisonment in Branch 54 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court and three years of suspended sentence.^{[30][31][32][33][34][35]}

Mehdi Rajabian’s protest

Mehdi Rajabian Playing se'tar

On Music Freedom Day, "Free Muse" (the international organization for advocating freedom of expression in the field of music) and the website of Music Freedom Day supported the protest movement of Mehdi Rajabian. He protested and announced in his Instagram page that his only property is his Setar to be sold to pay the fine as a part of the sentence. Fairy Muse and the website of Music Freedom Day devoted many pages supporting the protest movement of this Iranian artist. Muse Freeman Foundation supported the sale of Mehdi Rajabian's instrument.^{[36][37][38][39]}

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mehdi Rajabian.

• PEN International
• Amnesty campaign
• Music free day
• An important spanish journal
• Iran usembassy
• Harana agency
• Coverage By Guardian
• Amnesty International
• Amnesty International UK Petition
• Amnesty Switzerland Urgent Action
• Amnesty Deutschland Urgent Action
• International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran
• culture action europe
• Covereage by El Espanol
• Covereage by CNN Arabic
• Covereage by AL JAZEERA Arabic
• Arabic news reports on the imprisonment sentence of Mehdi Rajabian
• Arabic.RT
• Freerajabian

References