The day after protestors marched through downtown Ottawa to protest against the Iranian government, Ottawa recording artist Dillin Hoox released a touching tribute dedicated to the catalyst of those protests, Mahsa Amini.
On Sept. 16, 2022, 22-year-old Iranian Mahsa Amini died in Tehran, Iran under suspicious circumstances after being arrested by the Guidance Patrol, the morality police of Iran’s Law Enforcement Command. Amini was arrested for not wearing a hijab. While police claimed she had suffered a heart attack while at the police station, eyewitnesses who were detained with Amini claim she had been severely beaten by authorities.
Amini’s death lead to large-scale protests and civil unrest cross Iran, and inspired protests around the world, including in Ottawa this past Sunday where residents rallied in solidarity with Iranians.
A sign at a Mahsa Amini protest in Stuttgart, Germany (Ideaphagous / CC BY-SA 4.0
For Kurdish-Canadian rapper Dillin Hoox, who was born in Iran, the situation hits especially close to home and continues to impact his immediate family.
“My family escaped this regime when I was a kid,” explained Hoox in a recent email. “I wrote, recorded, mixed, mastered, shot the video and edited it all within 24 hours. A lot of tears man, a lot of tears…”
“Mahsa Amini” will be hitting digital streaming platforms on Oct. 7, but you can find it now on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. Hoox’s latest single to hit DSPs is the 180dazz-assisted, “Stand Out,” which was released on Sept. 23.
