Across the country underground music stores proliferate. Among the artists Um Katlhoum, Bee Gees, The Beatles, but also current chart toppers. For Iranians listening to banned songs is a way of feeling alive and moving on.

Tehran (AsiaNews / Agencies)-Um Katlhoum, Gogoosh, Amt Diab, Zaz, Abba, are some of the bands and singers that are all the rage in Tehran's illegal music stores. Despite strict controls that tolerate discussions even on formerly banned hot topics such as politics,  the West's sanctions and the nuclear program, the buying and listening to of music banned by the Ayatollah regime remains strictly forbidden. "Listening to music keeps you alive, even when you think you're dead," says Amir a thirty-five year old merchant specializing in the sale of "illegal music". "Listening to the lyrics of songs and artists active before the Islamic revolution - he explains - is for many Iranians the only way to look forward and hope."

The singers and groups favored by customers range from Amir to Um Kalthoum, the most popular female singer in the Arab world, to Edith Piaff and Haydeh, the most famous Iranian singer of the twentieth century, who died in 1990 in exile in Los Angeles (USA). "Not only is it forbidden to listen to female singers - he says - but also contemporary pop artists that speak of love, passion or topics deemed unlawful. Most of the western musicians and bands are banned from store shelves and so are many artists of the Arab world". The highly popular film ""No One Knows About Persian Cats" " (pictured), which tells the story of the underground Iranian groups rose to prominence in 2009 with the green wave protests.

However, there are also great artists among those approved by the regime. The most popular are Fear Zoland, an Iranian singer of Afghan origin, or Varoujou, an Armenian artist. "In front of foreign people - he says - to avoid explanations my clients veer towards these names that are still of good quality." Amir offers a music on CD, flash drive, or via direct download on mobile phones, but also live performances of some of his friend. In this way he tries to keep the link between traditional music in vogue before the revolution and the new art forms of the younger generation in Iran, alive.

According to Amir, it is sad that because of widespread anti-Iranian sentiment many artists have fallen into oblivion abroad. After the Islamic revolution of 1979, many emigrated to the United States, where they continued to write and sing, maintaining a reputation for a few years, mainly thanks to wealthy Iranian community in exile, only to be forgotten at home too.

The thirty-five year old Iranian explains, however, that it is an over-simplification to claim that the suffocating restrictions imposed by the government with regard to social and cultural choices, freedom of press and thought are the root Iran's problems. The country will start again as soon as the West removes the sanctions because of the nuclear program, releasing the Iranians isolation, giving way to a mutual cultural exchange with the world.

 

• iran
• ayatollahs
• regime
• sanctions
• music
• culture