The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Baraye: That's why the Iranian regime is so afraid of this song

2022-11-19T12:41:53.768Z


Baraye: That's why the Iranian regime is so afraid of this song Created: 2022-11-19 13:26 From: Foreign Policy The Iranian musician Shervin Hajipour became the voice of a whole generation with the setting of "Baraye". © Khaled Desouki/afp The protest anthem "Baraye" is a thorn in the side of the theocratic government in Tehran. It symbolizes the longing for a normal life - and cannot be crushe


Baraye: That's why the Iranian regime is so afraid of this song

Created: 2022-11-19 13:26

From: Foreign Policy

The Iranian musician Shervin Hajipour became the voice of a whole generation with the setting of "Baraye".

© Khaled Desouki/afp

The protest anthem "Baraye" is a thorn in the side of the theocratic government in Tehran.

It symbolizes the longing for a normal life - and cannot be crushed with violence.

  • "Baraye" is the song of an entire generation fighting the Islamic Republic of Iran.

  • Iranian music history shows the centuries-long struggle for freedom and justice that has never resulted in victory.

  • But this time it's not about calling for reforms, it's about smashing the system.

  • This article is available in German for the first time – it was first published in

    Foreign Policy

    magazine on October 26, 2022 .

"Baraye", the anthem of the Iranian protest movement "Woman, Life, Freedom" still unites Iranians in their resistance against the Islamic Republic weeks after its first publication.

It's a song composed entirely of a Twitter hashtag trend people are using to express their involvement in the current protests.

For the people of Iran, but also for the millions in the diaspora, this is the song of a generation.

What sets the current political moment apart from previous protests is that the facade of toleration and seeming acceptance that maintained state authority in the public sphere has been torn down on a scale not seen since the 1979 revolution case was.

In its enumeration of all the painful grievances, "Baraye", which in German can be translated as "for" or "because of", signals the end of patience with the status quo.

It opens with a vocal crescendo, culminating in the word "freedom," looking towards a new future.

For dancing in the streetsFor the fear one feels when kissingFor my sister, your sister, our sistersFor overcoming rotten structuresFor the shame that poverty bringsFor the longing for a normal life

baraye

Iran: "Baraye" is the song of revolt against the Islamic Republic - longing for normal life

The song shows how simple and everyday are the things that Iranians long for, ask for and would even die for.

It is radical because, at the national level, it exposes the cruelty of a system that denies such basic demands - and the devastating conditions Iranians face under the current regime.

But "Baraye" not only reflects a new, perhaps unprecedented, mood at the national level, it also represents the organizational structure of this latest protest movement.

Like the song, this movement is networked and without a leader.

The lyrics were written by many Iranians and only set to music and sung by the young, up-and-coming singer Shervin Hajipour.

Security forces arrested Hajipour a few days after posting it on his Instagram page.

The song already had millions of views.

The regime has tried for years to keep the obvious and real aspects of life out of the public eye.

"Baraye" broke through this violently erected wall between the reality enforced by the state and the real life of the people.

The song brought to light before the eyes of state authority everything that people have known for a long time but should not openly express in such a national dimension.

Since its release, the song has become the most covered protest song in Iranian history.

also read

Do Putin's closest confidants turn against him?

Insider speaks of possible "civil war"

"Genocidal" - Ukrainian ambassador attacks Russia's warfare

For a smiling faceFor the children at school, for the futureBecause of this forced paradiseFor imprisoned intellectuals

baraye

There are now many dance performances to this song around the world, and it regularly sounds from cars, balconies and open windows in Iranian towns and villages.

Malala Yousafzai, the activist for girls' education and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, recently sent a video message of solidarity to Iranian women with the song playing in the background.

Protests in Iran: why is the Iranian regime so afraid of this song?

Recently, Iranian rapper Hichkas released a militant hip-hop track in which he referred to "Baraye" with the more casual rap slang "

vase

. "

He listed his reasons, beginning with "Vase Mahsa" (for Mahsa Jina Amini, whose death at the hands of Iran's vice squad sparked the protests) and ending with "for a good day," in a nod to his own 2009 Green Movement protest song The Recording Academy, which hosts the annual Grammy Awards, announced that "Baraye" grabbed more than 80 percent of the nominations in the new category for Best Song for Social Change.

The concerns expressed in the short tweets in Hajipour's video and in the hashtag #Mahsa_Amini itself are indeed universal - the fragile state of the planet, drastic inequalities, the desire for a peaceful life - which is why the song resonates with so many people has found favor around the world.

For the garbage-picking child and his dreamsBecause of the planned economyBecause of the polluted air...For a sense of peaceFor the sun after long nights

baraye

At the same time, "Baraye" creates national familiarity by citing very specific events that all Iranians have suffered together.

It is a manuscript of recurring collective trauma.

Hajipour sings "For the image of a moment that should be repeated over and over again," following a tweet with a photo of Hamed Esmaeilion and his young daughter sitting together on a couch reading a newspaper.

His wife and 9-year-old daughter were killed when the Iranian Revolutionary Guards accidentally shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane departing from Tehran in January 2020.

Esmaeilion became the face of grief for all those who lost loved ones in the crash.

This phrase resonates with Iranians because so many families have been torn apart by the massive brain drain from the country, caused by a closed and corrupt economy that offers few opportunities.

In other lines, Hajipour sarcastically sings "Because of this enforced paradise," referring to the restrictions imposed by the theocratic state, justified by the realization of an Islamic utopia.

In another article he speaks of "houses in ruins" and refers to buildings that collapse because state-affiliated construction companies do not comply with safety measures due to rampant nepotism and corruption.

He sings of "imprisoned intellectuals", alluding not only to the hundreds of journalists, human rights lawyers and filmmakers who have been imprisoned, but also to award-winning university students.

The chorus emerging from hundreds of tweets is unequivocal: This is a regime that seems anti-life itself, punishing dancing, kissing and smiling faces.

Iran: Protest songs have a tradition - centuries of struggle for freedom and justice

The song's one-time overnight success is no small feat considering the long, rich history of protest songs in Iran.

As early as the time of the constitutional revolution in Iran in 1906, poets were creating songs about the blood spilled by youth fighting for representative government.

A little later, the song "Morgenvogel" told about a bird that broke through the cage of oppression.

It became one of the most sung protest songs in post-revolutionary Iran many decades later.

Iranian music history clearly shows the centuries-long struggle for freedom and justice that has never resulted in victory.

Although "Baraye" and other songs of the current protest movement continue this strong tradition, they break with the post-revolutionary legacy in a crucial way: they no longer call for reform.

During the last major riots in 2009, many Green Movement activists and musicians invoked songs from the 1979 revolution to commemorate the original promises of the revolution that had not yet been fulfilled.

People wore headscarves and armbands the color of Imam Hussain's green and took to their rooftops to shout "

Allahu akbar"

to ask for God's help against a corrupt earthly power.

But this time there are no religious signs or calls for reform.

If classical songs are played, it's not icon Mohammad Reza Shajarian's forgiving song "Language of Fire" from 2009, when Iranians were still fighting for reforms from within, but his combative song "Night Traveler" (aka "Gib mir my gun") from 1979, in which he calls "silence" a sin and asks for his gun so he can join the fight.

One of Shajarian's masterful female protégés posted the song with the hashtag #Mahsa_Amini, swapping out "the brother" from the verses.

She sings "The Sister is a Young Girl, the Sister is Drowning in Blood" in tribute to the teenage girls who lost their lives in the protests.

The state security system immediately understood the importance of "Baraye" as a protest song.

Hajipour was forced to take the song off his Instagram account.

Not only has his song been shared by other accounts and platforms, but the feelings behind the lyrics are familiar to millions of people who wrote it.

The cries of "Death to the Dictator" echo from the streets to the universities, from the oil refineries to the city rooftops, and from the bazaars to the schoolyards.

Ditto the haunting calls for freedom at the end of "Baraye".

They can now be heard from all corners of the real and virtual Iranian public.

The reality of this song can no longer be suppressed and hidden by force.

The lyrics in this article are attempts at translation.

Nahid Siamdoust

is an Assistant Professor of Middle East and Media Studies at the University of Texas at Austin and the author of

Soundtrack of the Revolution: The Politics of Music in Iran

.

This article was first published in English in the magazine "ForeignPolicy.com" on October 26, 2022 - as part of a cooperation, it is now also available in translation to the readers of the IPPEN.MEDIA portals.

*Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.

Foreign Policy Logo © ForeignPolicy.com

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-11-19

You may like

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-28T06:04:53.137Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.