The lives of Iranian women singers in diaspora

Abstract

This project investigates how several Iranian women singers who migrated to Western countries after the 1979 Islamic Revolution conduct their musical lives in diaspora. After the Revolution, most forms of music were declared sinful, and the use of a woman’s voice for singing solo in public was banned. This thesis constructs biographies for seven Iranian women singers living in diaspora, primarily using interviews conducted by the researcher, and examines the role of Iranian culture and the experience of living in diaspora in shaping these women’s musical lives and works. It also provides background information about the changing status of women in Iranian music through history, as well the history and reasons of migration in Iran.