Iranian Women and Persian Music

Iranian Women And Persian Music

Since the Iranian revolution, Iranian female solo vocalists are only permitted to perform for all-female audiences. Some women have also been allowed to conduct classes for female students in private homes. Female vocalists may perform for male audiences only as a part of a chorus, never individually. The prominent classical singer Fatemeh Vaezi, has given concerts accompanied by a female orchestra. She has also performed widely in Europe and the United States. Parisa (Ms. Vaezi's stage name) has also assembled a five-piece female orchestra. After 1986 Maryam Akhondy, the classical trained singer from Teheran, started working with other Iranian musicians in exile. With Nawa and Tschakawak she performed in Germany and Scandinavia. At the same time she founded Ensemble Barbad, another group of traditional Iranian art music, which has been touring all over Europe for the past years. In 2000 Maryam Akhondy created the all-female a cappella group named Banu as a kind of musical expedition to the different regions and cultures of Iran. For this project Maryam Akhondy over years collected old folk songs, which were sung only in private sphere, where women are alone or among themselves: at the cradle, doing housework, working in the fields, and women's celebrations. Maryam Akhondy made it her business to bring traditional women’s songs back to life again. The well-known classical and folk singer. Sima Bina, who is also a visual artist, has taught many female students to sing. She has also been permitted to give concerts for women in Iran, and has performed widely abroad.

Ghashang Kamkar teaches both male and female students. Both Ghashang and Parisa have criticized the patriarchal power structure for its primitive treatment of female artists.

A choir for Iranian women with fifty-eight members was established under the Armenian male conductor Gorgin Mousissian. Mousissian's choir, with its repertoire of National songs and folk melodies, performed recently for a mixed male and female audience at Vahdat Hall in Tehran.