While the US and Israel wage war on Iran, Iranian singer-songwriter Mehdi Yarrahi has released one of his most striking and politically charged works to date. Titled Auschwitz, the song dropped in early 2026 following a crackdown on protesters in Iran, continuing Mehdi’s tradition of using music as a way of speaking out against his own government.
Yarrahi first gained recognition through pop records such as Mano Raha Kon and Emperor, but his artistic trajectory has increasingly shifted toward social critique. Over the years, he has included themes of inequality, environmental decline, and civil rights in his work—actions that have drawn the attention of authorities and led to harsh restrictions on his career.
His support for the labor protests in Khuzestan in 2018, followed by his song Roosarito, released in solidarity with the Woman, Life, Freedom movement, intensified scrutiny against him, culminating in his arrest and sentencing in 2023.
Auschwitz can be seen as a stark continuation of this defiance. The song, which uses the Holocaust as a reference, employs imagery associated with systematic violence and dehumanization, which it uses to comment on current realities. It does not use this reference as a comparison but as a symbol, which challenges the audience to consider the normalization of brutality and the lack of safety in their daily lives.
The lyrics of the song, written by Hossein Shanbehzadeh, provide another form of resistance. Shanbehzadeh himself was sentenced to prison for a seemingly minor offense of online dissent and, in return, earned him the nickname “Dot Prisoner.” The combination of his work with Yarrahi brings together two voices all too familiar with censorship and oppression.
The song feels both like an anthem and a warning—one that refuses to look away from what many are forced to endure. And by releasing this music, Yarrahi once again demonstrates how art can bear witness in times of crisis, even when the personal cost is severe.
