A Performance Tribute to Iranian Female Singers

Writer and Performer: Shahrzad Arshadi
Music: Janet Lumb
*Friday Jan 19th 2018 + Saturday Jan 20th 2018– 8 pm @ m.a.i Montreal

As part of “Âgés et déjantés” Eclectik 2018  Festival 

Link for more information: http://mailchi.mp/m-a-i/laffiche-eclectik-2018-gs-et-djants-b?e=6da0ae1fb9

Abstract: 

In the 60s and 70s “Lalezar” a famous street in the heart of Tehran once was filled with cafes, theaters, discos and many vibrant  large and small cabarets with female and male performers and singers with a variety of styles  pop, traditional, rock, and so on.

“Immediately after the 1979 revolution a wide range of music activities including the production, distribution, and even consumption of any kind of music was presumed to be incompatible with the principle of the fundamentalist religious revolution in Iran.  And it was at that period then many of the cabarets in Lalezar had been burned down because they were promoting “toxified” culture!”

It is  38 years now that  no song by women has ever been played on National TV or Radio in Iran.  Women are not allowed singing in public unless it is choral singing.  Women’s voices are forbidden! 

As Clerics say; “women’s voices have the potential to trigger immoral sensual or kinetic arousal.”

For the same reason in order to honour those singers who lost their voices in past decades, I am willingly triggering immoral sensual arousal by sharing their story and singing their song!