SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
In Iran, speaking out against the current regime can get you in trouble. That includes even commenting on the war. Now Iranian authorities have upped the punishments for people it says are dissidents. NPR's Emily Feng reports.
EMILY FENG, BYLINE: Professor Ali Sharifi-Zarchi is used to threats. During a 2022 protest in Iran, the Women, Life, Freedom movement, Zarchi boycotted teaching classes.
ALI SHARIFI-ZARCHI, BYLINE: They, like, dismissed me from the university.
FENG: Then this past January when Iran's government and security forces began killing and executing thousands of demonstrators...
SHARIFI-ZARCHI: I wrote a tweet that Ali Khamenei is not my leader.
FENG: Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader killed by the U.S. and Israel soon after the start of the U.S. and Israel war in Iran this year.
SHARIFI-ZARCHI: I was 100% confident that after writing that tweet, the whole, like, situation for my life would change.
FENG: Zarchi is now living in hiding outside of Iran, and soon after leaving the country, one of his students forwarded to him an official message published by Iran's judiciary, declaring punishment.
SHARIFI-ZARCHI: That my property will be taken over by the government.
FENG: His apartment in Iran's Yazd province was being taken over by the regime in March, for what they say was collaboration with what they call the American-Israeli terrorist enemy. So far, Iran has announced it is confiscating property from more than 50 people for this. Collaboration here seems to be defined very loosely. Two Iranians told NPR they had received text messages despite an ongoing telecommunications blackout in Iran, warning them that speaking to foreign media could result in property confiscation as well. They asked NPR not to identify them for fear of reprisal.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BEMOON")
MOHSEN YEGANEH: (Singing in non-English language).
FENG: And then there's this man, the famed Iranian pop singer Mohsem Yeganeh. He shared a video of U.S. President Trump at the start of the war, implying the conflict was bad karma for Iran killing protesters back in January.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SOKOOT")
YEGANEH: (Singing in non-English language).
FENG: An Iranian state news agency said his properties had been among those seized by the government. Iranian soccer player Sardar Azmoun has been in hot water as well, ever since he shared photographs in which he shakes hands with leaders in the United Arab Emirates...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: (Non-English language spoken).
FENG: ...Where he plays, as heard here on an Emirati soccer club. But the UAE is considered an enemy in Iran, and Iran has been launching dozens of drones and missiles at it this year. Iranian media says Azmoun has been expelled from Iran's national team as a result and his property confiscated. Iran's foreign ministry did not respond to an NPR request for comment on these confiscations before this story was broadcast.
SHARIFI-ZARCHI: So I had my home and, like, one or two other properties.
FENG: This is Zarchi again, the university professor. He says he spent 25 years saving up his modest academic salary and doing some consulting work to buy these properties.
SHARIFI-ZARCHI: It might seem very strange in the U.S., in the Europe, that somebody tells, OK, your property is just simply taken by the government because a few tweets. But in the Islamic Republic, behavior - it's very normal.
FENG: But he consoles himself that he has not lost as much as other Iranians.
SHARIFI-ZARCHI: I thought about many parents who lost their beloved children by the regime.
FENG: He says the loss of his property is not comparable in value to a single drop of blood from these children. Emily Feng, NPR News, Van, Turkey.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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