Iranian artists jailed for defying government restrictions on women singing

August 31, 2020

Composer Mehdi Rajabian has been dragged before an Iranian Revolutionary Court for the third time in his career under an obscure law that forbids "crimes against public moral".

Mr Rajabian creates classical compositions using local Iranian instruments, but his latest project contains something largely forbidden in Iran: the graceful movements of a female classical dancer. Mr Rejabian told the ABC he was arrested after Sony Music released his latest album online, along with a video featuring renowned Persian classical dancer Helia Bandeh. He said he was interrogated and detained for several hours before his family paid for him to be released on bail ahead of his trial.

"The judge told me I was charged with publishing a woman singing and a woman dancing in my latest project, which 'causes society to go into prostitution'," Mr Rajabian said.

According to Iran's Islamic penal code, singing and dancing are not illegal but a person can be prosecuted if authorities deem their acts "indecent" or "immoral". Authorities in the nation have long censored art, music and other forms of cultural expression, but Iranian law only vaguely defines what constitutes acts against morality.

Every event requires a permit from the Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry, which also has the authority to intervene and cancel anything deemed immoral, according to the Centre for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI). "The repression of Iranian women singers and musicians is not only part of the broad denial of freedom of expression in Iran, where any political or artistic expression disapproved of by the authorities is forbidden and criminalised, it also reflects the intense cultural repression Iranian women face in all walks of life," CHRI executive director Hadi Ghaemi said.

There have been restrictions on women performing publicly in front of men who are not their immediate relatives since the Islamic revolution of 1979.

Ms Bandeh, who performed to Mr Rajabian's music in the video that led to his arrest, said Iran's "complicated" rules regarding entertainment were a "grey zone". "In the end, it all really depends on the individual and the connections you have that decide what you can and cannot do," she said. "One artist can create a video clip with a dancer, another is arrested for it. "If you choose to be an independent artist and you value to be able to express yourself freely, you are on the wrong side of the fence. You will get into trouble quickly."

Ms Bandeh spent six years teaching Persian classical dance both in Iran and abroad until, despite holding a permit, she was arrested last year. Her workshop and home were raided, her belongings were confiscated and she was detained for one year.

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