Last week, Mahsa Amini (22 years old), was killed while in the custody of the "Gasht-e Ershad", Iran's morality police. She was arrested for not wearing a head scarf, which is mandatory under the country's strict shariah law.
The movement to publicly remove head scarves had been gaining traction for the past year (the video below is from July 2021), but the women protesting have been beaten, arrested, and whipped.
Mahsa's death has sparked a new series of stronger protests. Predictably, the Iranian government shut down the Internet (similarly to how they did in 2009's protests, protesting the similar killing of Neda) and proceeded with mass arrests. So far, over 50 people have died and 700 have been arrested in the protests.
While the Iranian government is a fascist theocracy, the country is known for its rich history in art.
This is also reflected in the NFT world, where hundreds of creators from Iran and Persian descent create compelling art every day. They tend to be the most liberal and international people in the country, spending time on Twitter Spaces (via VPN, since the country has a repressive firewall) and minting on Tezos (due to its lower gas prices). This makes them some of the most likely to be persecuted by the regime.
In order to bring attention to the protests, and highlight the artists in the space, we are going to be featuring creators, artists and playlists from Persian and Iranian artists.
As of now, you cannot buy NFTs on DNS. We stand to take no profit from this event. We simply wish to show the interesting art and music from the region.
We will do what we can to bring attention to the topic. In 2009, the protests took place in the greater context of the Arab Spring. We hope this year's unrest results in more freedoms for the women who are affected.
You'll find our posts on #IranResist on Twitter, and the featured art on the IranResist playlist.