News
Iranian poet and songwriter Yaghma Golrouee was arrested on Monday, November 30, 2015.
Iran’s semi-official news agency ILNA has confirmed the news, but it is not clear why he was arrested, and his location is unknown.
Golrouee is a well-known poet and songwriter in Iran. His poetry book ‘I have a dream’ was Iran’s best-selling book last year.
Another of his books ‘Drunken Driven’ was published in Germany after Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance refused to issue a license to publish the book in Iran.
Two years ago, the controversial Iranian singer Shahin Najafi made a song based on one of Golrouee’s poems. Najafi has been called “the Salman Rushdie of music” after clerics in Iran issued a death fatwa against him, calling him an apostate, which is considered punishable by death under the country’s sharia law.
Golrouee’s arrest comes a few weeks after two other Iranian poets, Mehdi Mousavi and Fatemeh Ekhtesari, were sentenced to 99 lashes each and a total of 20 years in jail for supposedly insulting religion. They were among other things accused of collaborating with Najafi after the singer had included their poems in his album.
Related articles: