Click
an area of the map for world news.
|
 |
| Iranian
singer Googoosh on her comeback tour (Photo: AFP). |
Googoosh
Iran’s High Priestess of Pop
To older Iranians, she represents the music of their youth.
To those who have never known a free Iran, she symbolizes
the liberty they are denied. Persian pop star Googoosh, who
in the 1960s wore miniskirts and set Farsi poems to disco
beats, is in the midst of a comeback after years of repression.
Googoosh (whose real name is Faegheh Atashin) was banned from
performing and recording in Iran in 1979, when the Islamic
Revolution replaced the Shah’s rule. Unlike other Iranian
singers who fled to the United States and Canada, she stayed
in Iran, living quietly in a Tehran apartment until she could
leave legally in 1997. “I wanted to come out with a passport,”
she told Cairo’s Al-Ahram Weekly. “I worried
I would never have the chance...to come back.”
Her steadfastness earned the devotion of Iranians at home
and abroad. And last July, at the age of 50, Googoosh launched
a 19-city comeback tour that climaxed in March (coinciding
with the Iranian New Year) in Dubai, just across the Persian
Gulf from Iran. Googoosh reduced the 20,000-strong crowd to
tears with renditions of old hits and surprised them with
new, upbeat numbers.
“I remembered the people of Iran on stage and wished
that one day I could sing under the skies of Iran for all...Iranians,”
she told the Baku Sun of Azerbaijan. “To some
extent, that wish has been fulfilled. I feel that I am in
Iran.”
The Dubai concert marks a shift in Iran’s attitude toward
music and personal freedom. While Googoosh still can’t
perform in Iran, the government of President Muhammad Khatami
allows her to travel outside the country for performances.
Meanwhile, Muslim hard-liners worry about the country’s
movement toward secularism. Googoosh voiced her optimism to
Al-Ahram. “That I could come out and sing on stage
is itself a sign of hope.”
—Sarah Hammond
|
|
|
