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• 1 media/Hajipour Baraye image.jpeg 2024-10-27T17:58:34-07:00 Music as Rebellion 14 How a restrictive music industry created a vehicle for revolution image_header 2024-12-09T05:24:07-08:00 The music utilized in the Woman, Life Freedom movement is significant, not only because music was one of the vehicles which spread the movement into the global stage, but also because the music utilized specifically targeted regime change, rather than reform. Previous social movements in Iran had used music as a tool for reform, like in the 2009 Green Uprising, but regime change has not been called for since the years leading up to the 1979 revolution which instated the current Islamic Republic.
                    Fittingly, the movement not only saw the creation of new protest music, like Shervin Hajipour’s “Baraye” (For) or Toomaj Salehi’s “Soorakh Moosh” (Rathole) , but also the reuse of older Iranian protest music from the 20^th century like Aref Qazvini’s “Az Khun-e Javanan” (from the blood of youth) and even global protest songs like a rendition of the Chilean song “El Pueblo Unido” (a united people)  called "Sorud-e Azadi" (the freedom anthem), created by an anonymous student group (viewable below)
  
  
  
                    This speaks to the new political atmosphere within Iran, created by the rise of new generations that do not share the sentiments of the previous. Former generations, having seen and lived through the reign of Reza Shah Pahlavi, still held hope that the Islamic Republic was capable of reform, providing the traditional structure and culture they felt then shah was attempting to rid them of while still having personal freedoms. But newer generations, like millennials and Gen Z, do not share this perspective. From their personal experiences, growing up within the Islamic Republic, while having the modern resource of the internet, has created a deep sense of dissatisfaction that cannot be rectified by reform. This also has the interesting effect of creating posthumous pro-Shah opinions.
  
                    Music is an easy vehicle to voice these dissatisfactions due to its controversial place within modern Iranian society. Ayatollah Khomeini immediately banned music upon his rise to power, but in the current day policy has grown a  bit more lax, allowing certain genres. This is mainly due to most genres being seen as too “secular” and “western” as opposed to “Islamic”. The industry is small, difficult, and lacking in protections for the artists, who are at the whim of event coordinators who take advantage of them and the Islamic Republic, which does its best to suppress them. It’s no wonder the most vocally anti-regime protest songs were released on social media first; it is highly likely they would never have been allowed to be published in the first place.
  
                     It is incredibly difficult to produce certain kinds of music and spread it. Within Iran the music industry is heavily regulated, and all songs are vetted through a long and arduous process. Not only this, but all solo female vocalists are still banned from performing or making music. This would be why there is a busy Iranian music industry mainly within Los Angeles, though Toronto also has its fair share of expats who left very soon after the ban on music. One famous example of this would be Googoosh, the pop singer. 
                    In this way, all music is inherently rebellious in their rejection of the Islamic Republic’s laws. Their very existence is the beacon Iranians want to send to the world. Using their most restricted form of art, they are calling us. They are asking us to hear them, to hear their voices as unrestrained as they can be, and to support them by spreading their message.
  
  
  - KC