“Arrested for making cutlets. Do you believe? In Iran, no one is safe anymore.” There are thousands of Navab Ebrahimi photos on Twitter. Almost a habit for a chef with over almost 3 million followers. But this time the thousands of reposts don’t concern the images of his colorful dishes: there are no spaghetti, no pizzas or omelettes, but the close-up of him. There is the serious face of the Iranian cook looking into the camera. A photo that his fans are circulating to denounce his arrest, the portal’s activists announced Iran International EnglishBesides Bbc Persian: ‘Navab Ebrahimi was arrested at his workplace and was transferred to Evin prison.’
Ebrahimi is a well-known chef not only in Tehran: he has almost 3 million followers on his Instagram account and 60,500 subscribers on Youtube. Now, the same sources have reported that not only is his account no longer available, but his restaurant in Tehran has also been closed.
Fans immediately rallied. Many accounts have complained that the chef was arrested after he posted a video online of him cooking a traditional Persian dish, meatballs, on the anniversary of General Qasem Soleimani’s death. «He was arrested – is the complaint – for having taught how to cook Persian meatballs to celebrate #KotletDay and the killing of Ghassem Soleimani». The head of the elite team for the most secret operations and, above all, a key man of the ayatollahs’ regime was killed by a missile on his car in a US air raid in Baghdad on January 3, 2020. On Twitter, someone points out that “the Islamic regime has become so fragile and weak that it feels threatened by meatballs».
The repression, however, does not stop. Despite the courage of the protesters, who day after day since last September 16 – the day Mahsa Amini died – continue to take to the streets for their rights and publish thousands of posts denouncing the hashtag #iranrevolution on social networks, in the country the Islamic Republic continues to hold a tight fist. In addition to Ebrahimi’s arrest, today there is news of the death sentence of a 22-year-old disabled protester.