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Radiofarda – Instagram has shut down the account of Iranian rapper Tataloo after activists and Instagram users reported him for inappropriate posts asking underage girls to join his ‘team’ for sex.
In a few recent Instagram stories Turkey-based Amir-Hossein Maqsoudlou (Maghsoudlou) who is better known by his stage name of Tataloo, said he was seeking young girls between the ages of 15 to 20 to join his harem. His Instagram account had more than 4.4 million followers and one of his live posts recently broke the Instagram record of live viewers with more than 640,000 people viewing the post.
Tataloo’s explicit songs and social media posts had raised many eyebrows before but this time activists such as Aida Qajar and another Iranian rapper, Soroush Lashkari (known professionally as Hichkas “Nobody”) took to social media to ask people to report him to Instagram for inappropriate use of the medium and what appears to be promoting pedophilia. Tataloo’s account had once before been shut down by Instagram for inappropriate comments including explicit sexual references and misogynous remarks in October 2019.
Tataloo had been briefly jailed in 2013 for distribution of his banned music to foreign-based satellite channels and for two months in 2016 for insulting a judge during a court hearing.
In July 2015 while nuclear talks were underway between Iran and world powers Tataloo, until then an underground rapper who could never perform in public, released a controversial song in support of Iran’s nuclear program.
The tattoo-covered rapper is also known for supporting the hardliner Ayatollah Ebrahim Raeesi, the current Chief Justice of Iran in the 2017 presidential elections against Hassan Rouhani.
Raeesi’s campaign was apparently counting on attracting the younger generation by arranging a very odd meeting between the hardliner cleric and a popular rapper, using the photos in the campaign.
After leaving Iran Tataloo attacked Raisi and the slain Commander of the Qods Force General Qassem Soleimani. He called them cowards who had not returned the favors or services that he had offered them and in an Instagram post appeared to be deriding the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
In January Tataloo was arrested by the Turkish immigration police and was feared to be in danger of being deported back to Iran. He was freed a few days later despite Iran pushing for his extradition.
- Maryam SinaieeMaryam Sinaiee is a British-Iranian journalist, political analyst and former correspondent of The National, who contributes to Radio Farda.
