33 year old Toomaj is a heroic artist beloved by millions in Iran and worldwide because he stands up for, and with, the people. We must join together in the fight to prevent his voice from being silenced and for his unconditional release. As Toomaj has said, “I don’t deserve to be in prison even for one day!” Yet, he has been tortured while imprisoned for 18 months.

Toomaj has taken an art form that he has described as a “voice from the bottom of society,” and made it his own, carrying forward its spirit of “fight the power”. He is hated by the misogynist mullahs ruling Iran for good reason.  He champions the fight against the vicious oppression of women (and the forced hijab) in his art and on the streets. He was arrested for taking part in the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom uprising with his art and his activism. He calls for unity of the ordinary people against the injustices visited upon the world’s nobodies.

On April 13, the IRI launched a new nationwide crackdown to enforce hijab/headscarf laws called Project Noor as it launched a barrage of missiles against Israel (a response to Israel’s attack on Iran’s embassy compound in Syria on April 1). The Isfahan court handed down the death sentence to Toomaj at a moment when women in Iran are violently assaulted by MOBS of police or vigilantes. Hundreds of women have been arrested, fined and imprisoned for refusing to submit to a dominated status designated by the mandatory hijab. The IRI is singling out Toomaj because he not only upholds and joins in the movement against women’s oppression, but he concentrates the spirit of fearless and selfless resistance against the whole reactionary theocratic regime.

On April 25, 2024, from Tehran’s Evin prison, Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi said, in part:

‍Toomaj Salehi is the voice of "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement & its soundtrack. The execution of Toomaj is the death of our movement. To keep our movement alive we must rise up TOGETHER….
Vengeful, cowardly, and oppressive executions are a shameful stain on the foul and dark garment of the authoritarian religious government. Let us not allow the blood of another young person to mar the pure expanse of our land.
We can prevent this!
‍#toomajsalehi #nargesmohammadi #notoexecutionsiniran

IEC co-founder Dolly Veale has stressed that,

“Toomaj’s life and the lives of all Iran’s political prisoners depend on us telling the truth: Iran is a fascist-capitalist theocracy and not a genuinely anti-imperialist state. The US is in fact an imperialist state and an enemy of the Islamic Republic. BUT it is not a friend of the people of the world – in Iran, Gaza or anywhere else. If you support one or the other of these oppressors, you stand with oppression. Instead, we must stand with the people of Iran who have stood up. Let’s open this critical discussion.”

The orientation in this urgent struggle comes from the Emergency Appeal of the International Emergency Campaign to Free Iran’s Political Prisoners Now (IEC):

The governments of the U.S. and Iran act from their national interests. And, in this instance, we the people of the U.S. and Iran, along with the people of the world, have OUR shared interests, as part of getting to a better world: to unite to defend the political prisoners of Iran. In the U.S., we have a special responsibility to unite very broadly against this vile repression by the IRI, and to actively oppose any war moves by the U.S. government that would bring even more unbearable suffering to the people of Iran.
‍
‍We demand of the Islamic Republic of Iran:
Free Toomaj Salehi NOW!
FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS NOW!
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We say to the U.S government:
NO THREATS OR WAR MOVES AGAINST IRAN, LIFT U.S.SANCTIONS!

Contact the IEC with your ideas on how together we will step up the fight to defend Toomaj’s life and free him now.
FreeIransPoliticalPrisonersNow@gmail.com‍