Article by: Sepideh Jodeyri

Translated into English by: Potkin Azarmehr


If singers like El General, Emel Mathlouthi and Ramy Assam have turned the Arab Spring into musical notes and take it forward from there, the Green Movement has also registered in the musical world, a young singer with a great voice and great courage. Although his audience is not as widespread as that of the Arab speaking world, amongst Persian speakers he is well known for his exceptional courage and innovative style in singing “Protest Songs”.

Arya Aramnjead is 28 years old and was born in Babol, a small town in North Iran. If Tunisian revolutionary songs by Emel Mathlouthi are reincarnations of songs by Joan Baez and Bob Dylan during the anti-war and civil rights movements of the sixties and seventies in America, Arya Aramnejad can be compared, in many ways, with Victor Jara, the poet, song writer and famous revolutionary singer from Chile.

First and foremost what is true with both, is that their political and artistic life have merged and point in the same direction, standing up to tyranny. They both believe in the struggle through music and have dedicated their talents to serve the aspirations of their people. Thus Victor Jara in his famous Manifesto, which is his last song and in a way his last will, speaks of his philosophy in singing and song writing in this way:

At the same time both see their commitment in using their talents, in the middle of an election campaign, in support of their favorite candidate.

In 1969, the Communist Party, Socialists and other Leftist groups in Chile form a coalition called “popular unity” which one year later puts up Salvador Allende as its candidate. Jara holds a huge concert in support of Allende in Chile stadium in Santiago.

Arya Aramnejad too, during the election campaign in 2009, sang the song, 'Saviour of Iran' in support of Mir Hussein Moussavi. After the election fraud by Ahmadinejad and his coup in changing the election results, Arya continued to use his talents in support of the popular protests and Moussavi. When Moussavi was put under house arrest, Arya sang 'Nostalgia'.

Both Jara and Arya were incarcerated for using their art for their humanitarian goals, they were tortured but they stand to the end.

This is how Jara's story is told, in 1973 after Pinochet's coup, many revolutionaries including Salvador Allende are killed and many more arrested. Jara was also arrested along with students from Santiago's Technical University and are taken to the Santiago stadium. There they break his hands and fingers and mockingly tell him to sing a song and he sings 'Venceremos' (We Will Win), the anthem of Popular Unity. They found his bullet riddled body on 16th September by the roadside.

Arya's defence in court explains what happened to him in the Autumn of 2010:

“He is mocked, humiliated and insulted. They threaten to arrest his wife who had no part in his political activities. His war veteran brother is also insulted and they threaten to arrest him too if Arya does not co-operate with his interrogators. The intelligence ministry guards threaten to kill Arya and the prison guards threaten to hang him. He is kept in a 1.5 x 2 metre cell with no sanitary facilities. His skin becomes festered with infectious blisters as a lack of hygiene facilities in his cell. He is denied his medicines for his heart condition and he is kept in a cell next to an AIDS sufferer. Arya is forced to walk with bare feet over the blood spilled on the floor by the AIDS sufferer prisoner. They make up lies about his wife and insult her. He is forced to take his clothes off and strip searched while the guards take pictures with their cameras. Arya is beaten severely when he asks for a doctor. His hands and feet are chained for long periods in his cell... and the story goes on because Arya is re-arrested again on 8th of November 2011. He is kept in the same prison as before under the same inhumane conditions.”

Victor Jara's voice was extinguished by Pinochet's henchmen, lets not allow our own Victor Jara's voice to be extinguished.