Sorush Lashkari (Death Threats)
Sorush Lashgari is a popular(1) Persian rap singer and songwriter known by the stage name "Hichkas"(Nobody). A pioneer of Persian rap, he has been called the "Father of Persian Rap". Sorush was born in Tehran on May 9, 1985 and was interested in music from a young age; he abandoned his university studies in English to pursue a career in music.
"Hichkas" released his first underground album, which had social and critical themes, in 2006 without permission from the Ministry of Islamic Guidance. After the album became very popular amongst the younger generation, he was summoned to court in 2008 on the charge of "promoting and publishing music without a license" and released on bail of 5 million tomans with a commitment to not sing rap songs without a license until the trial. After the 2009 post-presidential election mass protests, “Hichkas” released the song "A good day is coming" in support of the protestors. He eventually left Iran and continued his artistic activities in England.
Hichkas’s songs are themed around Iran's social and cultural issues and reflect the anxiety and malaise of young Iranians. Sorush showed his solidarity for all the protests in Iranian society by releasing songs of support. Songs such as "Bezan"(hit it) and "Dastasho Mosht Karde"(He turned his hand into a fist) were released respectively in protest against "the blasting of the Ukrainian plane by IRGC missiles” and the killing of people by the Islamic Republic during the “November 2019” country-wide protests triggered by the increase in gasoline prices. Most recently, during the widespread protests known as the "Woman, Life, Freedom" uprising in Iran in 2022, "Hichkas" showed his support to protestors by releasing the song "Inyekiam Vase" (This one is for). This song ends with the following lyrics: “for each person killed, there are thousands and thousands of Nikas added.”
In addition to his music, Sorush Lashgari has also frequently used his popular page on the former Twitter social media platform, which had over 500k followers in the fall of 2022, to make critical comments about events inside Iran or to show his support for those detained in the protests, and as a result, his Twitter activities have often been the subject of government news reports.
On October 21, 2022, after Hichkas posted a tweet on Twitter Platform with the hashtag Mahsa Amini, an Islamic Republic official, Abdolreza Davari, who has held several government positions, from a deputy official of the Islamic Republic News Agency to Advisor to the Ministry of Interior and Head of the Ministry of Interior Studies Center, wrote a threatening public response:
Hichkas: “The West is not supposed to intervene... This is called collaboration.
Collaboration between the people of Iran who seek freedom and the West to destroy one of the dirtiest regimes the world has ever seen...…”
Abdol Reza Davari: "The one whose name was ‘Bakhtiar’ and allied himself with Saddam and the West to save Iran, ended up as he did; you who are ‘nobody,’ may God give you a good ending!"
Davari accompanied his tweet with a picture of former Prime Minister Shapour Bakhtiar, (who escaped an assassination attempt in 1980 and was assassinated by agents of the Islamic Republic in France in August 1991)
This is not the only threat Hichkas has received from Twitter users, but he said to Abdorrahman Boroumand Center that most often the real identity of these users is not known.
Sorush Lashgari became sensitive to these threats because of two incidents that followed the Twitter exchange. On October 21, 2022 , Only a few hours after receiving the threat, when he planned to travel to Berlin to participate in a large gathering organized to protest the death of Mahsa Jina Amini and the state’s violent response to the ensuing protests, he reported the roaming of an unknown and suspicious person near his place of residence in London. Around the same time, another unknown Farsi speaking individual rang his apartment’s doorbell and asked through the intercom for Sorush Lashgari to go down and then left. Sorush reported the matter to the London police, and after an investigation, the police made his home a security priority and advised him to cancel his upcoming trip to Berlin. Sorush did not cancel his trip but these incidents and more recent similar incidents have significantly restricted his freedom of movement in London.
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1) In February 2024, Hichkas’ former Twitter account had 847.1K Followers and his Instagram account was followed by 2.3 million users.
Sources:
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Abdorrahman Boroumand Center interview with Sorush Lashgari (Hichkas), 8 January 2024.
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Sorush Lashgari (Hichkas) Twitter profile, 21 October 2022.
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Abdorrahman Boroumand Center interview with Azadeh Akbari, wife of Sorush Lashgari (Hichkas), 26 and 7 February 2024.
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Radio Zamaneh, Hichkas and the New Revolution of the Iranian People, 21 November 2022 .