*** Welcome to piglix ***

Mehdi Rajabian

Mehdi Rajabian
Mehdi1.jpg
Born October 1989
Sari, Iran
Nationality Iranian
Education Music
Occupation Musician
Years active 2007–present

Mehdi Rajabian (Persian :) 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.

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. 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.

Mehdi Rajabian officially participated and monitored the quality of the publication and the music composition. He was arrested by Iranian security forces on 5 October 2013 in his office and transferred to Ward 2A of Evin Prison and each one was sentenced more than two months in solitary confinement, while this arrest ceased his personal project. 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.

Mehdi Rajabian was imprisoned in the ward 7 of Evin Prison in Tehran, but after a contentious struggle with the judicial officer of the prison was sent to the ward 8 for punishment. After 10 months of the period of imprisonment, he went on a hunger strike to protest against the unjust trial, lack of medical facilities in prison, and his transfer to the ward 8 isolating him from his brother. After 14 days of strike, he called off his strike by the interference of the official representative of the prosecutor sent to the prison as an intermediary. However, he published an open letter addressing the judicial authorities of Iran, could attract the supports of the artists of the world by a 30-day hunger strike, and convince the judicial authorities to give him medical leave for the treatment of diseases arising out of hunger strike. Following that, he could return to the ward 7 too.

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. After the protests, Amnesty International via all of its branches around the world launched a campaign and acquired to release this artist and then more than twenty thousand artists across the world joined this campaign. 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. 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. 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.


...
Wikipedia

...