The Female Voice of Iran

Abstract

Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Iranian women have been subjected to a variety of control and limitation measures. These include a ban on female solo singing in public, a prime example of the radical socio-cultural changes of the post-revolutionary era. The Female Voice of Iran is an interview-based documentary with elements of ethnofiction that tells the story of Iranian women singers who, despite limitations and discrimination, continue to strive to achieve their musical dreams. The film is directed by Andreas Rochholl, a trained singer, director, cinematographer and cultural entrepreneur based in Berlin. Together with Berlin-based associate producers Yalda Yazdani, an Iranian ethnomusicologist and curator, and Sebastian Leitner, also the film's editor, the team traveled to several regions of Iran to interview fourteen singers from different ethnic backgrounds. The singers featured in the film represent a variety of Iran's different music genres, including Iranian classical music, folk, jazz, and pop. Besides the conventional use of talking head interviews, the singers appear in some of the directed scenes throughout the film.In the film, Rochholl and Yazdani are presented as two travelers leaving Berlin to Iran carrying a golden camel statue that symbolizes the talisman of a fictional woman singer named Negar. There is no view of Negar throughout the film, but her presence is often represented in dramatic voiceovers and in some imaginary dialogues between the golden camel and the singers. The narrative of the film is centered around Negar's dream, which can be heard at the start of the film: “Female voices from all over Iran coming out of isolation, connecting and uniting.” She states that she aims to bring women together to sing in her garden in Isfahan, a city in the middle of Iran. The travelers set out to make Negar's dream come true by visiting the singers in various regions of Iran.Their journey begins in Bushehr, a port city in the south of Iran, where they meet Baran Mozafari, one of the first Bushehri women who brought celebratory southern folk songs to the stage. In a directed scene positioned alongside a musical performance, Mozzafari shares aspects of her musical background, ideas about music, and personal life. This combination of interviews, performances and ethnofictional narratives is used for the remaining thirteen Iranian women singers from eight different ethnic groups. Continuing along the golden camel's path throughout Iran, the filmmakers meet the rest of the singers and encourage them to connect with one another in Negar's garden. As they move from one region to the next, the film illustrates the cultural and natural diversity of the country as well as the diversity of Iran's urban areas. The majority of the locations feature traditional and classical music from each region.Rather than highlighting the hardships and challenges of being a woman singer, the film stresses the passion for the work and the dream of being seen, exhibiting the strength, tenacity, and endurance of these women. There are, however, a few scenes that express the pain of female artists’ limitations and their struggle for freedom. This is most apparent in a moving statement by one of the Kurdish folk singers, Jivar SheikhoIeslami, where she describes how it hurts to see that half of society cannot listen to her sing despite her efforts. In another example, Haleh Seyfizadeh, a Persian classical singer, describes the moment when she was suddenly silenced on stage when she started singing solo: her microphone was turned off to prevent the audience from hearing her voice.The role of social media, especially Instagram, is highlighted throughout the film as one of the main avenues for helping female singers connect, fight isolation, and distribute their music given their limitations. In one interview in the film, Shadi Behyar, a pop singer from Mahabad, mentions directly how social media has influenced Iranian culture regarding the appreciation of women's music. To reinforce the importance of social media, the fictional Negar also uses an Instagram account throughout the film to connect with singers.A strength of this film is its presentation of the diversity of Iranian music and culture through the showcasing of fourteen singers from different backgrounds and ethnicities. Nevertheless, the politics of performance in a multi-ethnic society are not addressed critically enough to allow the audience to grasp them in depth. For example, the interviews with singers belonging to an ethnic minority, such as an Arab or Kurd, do not touch on any of the challenges or difficulties associated living in a society dominated by Persian language and culture. War and political tensions are mentioned by the interviewees, highlighting the ongoing social anxiety and trauma of war still prevalent in the collective memory. One scene in the film features a conversation between Mina Deris, an Iranian-Arab singer, and her father in the city of Abadan near the Iraq border. In their conversation, the audience learns about the Iran-Iraq War and its consequences, such as internal migration and displacement. The ongoing anxiety about the start of another war and political tension is also raised in singer Mahia Hamadi's narrative about the motivation behind her composition of the song “Deng,” a jazz-folk song about the sorrow of loss in war.“I had a dream, and you all made it possible,” Negar says when all the interviewed singers finally gather in Negar's garden. Did the dream come true? The director portrays the connection and unity among women singers beautifully, but their goal to sing freely for the public remains unfulfilled and is not even presented as a fictional or imaginary scene. Thus, the gathering in the garden represents one form of resistance: embracing private performance spaces to avoid restrictions imposed by the Islamic Republic. In the end, viewers may wonder whether the dream of free singing has been realized. In what sense can a small gathering without public audiences be considered a dream? The film closes with a series of clips of Iranian female singers in Berlin, curated by Yalda Yazdani in 2017. Viewers may wonder if the purpose of this scene is to say that holding concerts in free countries is one way to bring women singers out of isolation. If so, should we consider the Berlin concert as an answer to the silenced Iranian women?This documentary is well suited to be used alongside world music textbooks and introductory courses in ethnomusicology for its broad overview of Iranian music and culture and its exploration of some of the sociopolitical issues affecting music-making in Iran. As most Iranian music studies resources in English focus predominantly on Persian classical music, the film's emphasis on regional musical styles offers a valuable resource for educators and scholars interested in exploring Iranian pop and folk music styles. Drawing attention to the border regions of Iran and the country's ethnic diversity, instead of focusing on the center, extends the film's importance beyond music studies.Overall, the film is successful in reminding Iranian and non-Iranian audiences of the active work and training of Iranian women singers despite their limitations. With the help of fictional elements, particularly the golden camel statue symbolizing patience, the storyline between fourteen singers weaves into a cohesive whole. Nonetheless, it would have been exciting to see the filmmakers use the fictional elements of the storyline to narrate things ever harder to imagine under Islamic Republic rule, like female solo singing for public audiences within Iran. After all, performances in private spaces or abroad are practices that have been occurring for decades.