Outrage and Grief as Iranian Regime Accused of Killing Artists
Sculptor Mehdi Salahshour and filmmaker Javad Ganji are among the members of Iran’s creative community reportedly killed during anti-government protests.
As accounts emerge from Iran’s deadly crackdown on dissent this month, reports that government forces have shot and killed artists, including sculptor Mehdi Salahshour and filmmaker Javad Ganji, have added to growing international outrage.
Amid an ongoing state-initiated internet blackout in Iran, reporters and human rights groups are scrambling to account for the number of protesters killed and arrested by the Iranian regime since opposition demonstrations began in December.
According to eyewitness reports, government forces have shot indiscriminately at protesters, killing over 2,400 protesters, estimated by the United States-based Human Rights Activists News Agency. The group also reported that forces arrested 18,137 people as part of the crackdown.
Salahshour, a 50-year-old sculptor and father, and Ganji, a 39-year-old television and film director, were among those massacred, according to the Norway-based Iranian Kurdish Hengaw Organization for Human Rights. Ganji’s killing was also confirmed by the Iranian Independent Filmmakers Association (IIFMA), as reported by Deadline.
Demonstrations across Iran’s 31 provinces began late last year, as opposition to rising inflation gained momentum into broader protests against the theocratic regime led by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has ruled the Islamic Republic of Iran since 1989.
The Hengaw Organization stated that Salahshour was killed in the city of Mashhad on January 8 “by direct fire from a military-grade weapon,” which the organization described as a “Kalashnikov rifle,” the family of assault weapons that includes the AK-47.
“Mehdi Salahshour was a prominent sculptor, a sculpture instructor, the founder of a specialized stone sculpture workshop, and a recipient of international artistic awards,” the Hengaw Organization said in an article on its website. According to Sky News, Salahshour held workshops at the University of Tehran and was associated with the Visual Arts Development Institute.
The advocacy organization Artists at Risk Connection (ARC) condemned the reported killings in a statement on Monday, January 13.
“With information being suppressed, it is difficult to assess how extensive the repression has been, but with the reports of these attacks on artists, it is clear that anyone can be targeted by the police and militia,” said Julie Trébault, ARC’s executive director.
“ARC mourns the killing of these Iranian artists, and calls on the authorities to stop its assault on and detention of protesters, and on the international community to take urgent action to stop escalating violations of human rights and humanitarian norms,” Trébault continued.
Ganji was reportedly killed on January 9 in Tehran, according to the Hengaw Organization, which said the filmmaker was shot in the Tehran neighborhood of Sadeghiyeh. He had directed several cinematic projects.
The Iranian judiciary has reportedly vowed to expedite trials and executions of protesters, including for the charge of “waging war against God.”
The US military is reportedly withdrawing individuals from an air base in Qatar, as some officials warn of potential US intervention and President Trump threatens to take “very strong action” if Iran proceeds with hanging anti-government protesters. Critics have pointed to Trump’s inconsistent support for freedom of protest. The president characterized demonstrators protesting the killing of Renee Nicole Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis as “anarchists and professional agitators,” promising “reckoning and retribution.”
Dissident filmmaker Jafar Panahi posted a letter signed by 184 Iranian cinematographers on his Instagram account last week, condemning state violence.
“We, the filmmakers, will depict these days and these wounds, and we will defend the right of freedom of expression with all our might, condemn the repression and killing of the protesting people, and stand by the people of Iran,” the letter reads.