Down with the veil! Three gutsy girls found Iranian Women Composers Union: 'We want to form a global home front'

Things can change. In 1979, Iran changed from a Western-oriented secular state to a spiritual dictatorship, where Islamic leaders call the shots. Women must now go through life veiled and music is banned as extremely sinful. Four decades later, three women founded the Iranian Female Composers Association on. In America, though. 

'Music is like a drug, those who engage in it can no longer devote themselves to important activities. [...] We must eliminate music because it betrays our country and our youth.' So says Ayatollah Khomeini just after taking power in 1979. Promptly, he rewrote the constitution and all concerts and radio and television broadcasts of any music from home or abroad were banned. The Revolutionary Guards reportedly even organised raids to track down and destroy instruments, writes Sara Soltani in The Power Within Music: Human Rights in the Context of Music.

Forbidden fruits 

At the same time, Soltani notes that the soup was not eaten as hot as it was served, simply because music has traditionally been an important part of Persian culture. 'Despite all measures to combat it, it was out of the question that music would be completely eradicated,' she argues. In fact, the Iranian approach turns out to show surprising similarities with our Dutch tolerance culture. For instance, there is 'a big difference between what is theoretically banned and what people actually do in their private lives'. Indeed, 'the very intention of banning music from public life led to increasing music practice among young people in all walks of life'. - In Iran, too, forbidden fruits taste best.

After Khomeini's death in 1989, a more liberal wind starts blowing, even though there are still considerable restrictions and musical expressions are subject to censorship. While it is possible to study Western or Persian classical and folk music at various universities, those who really want to achieve something go abroad. This also applies to the three founders of the Iranian Female Composers Association (IFCA) Niloufar Nourbakhsh (1992), Anahita Abbasi (1985) and Aida Shirazi (1987), who currently live in the United States.

Dreamland America

Even though she is the youngest of the bunch, Niloufar Nourbakhsh is the lynchpin of the whole thing. She grew up in Karaj, a city west of Tehran, in a family where she was surrounded by Persian classical music. 'But I also listened to Western music, ranging from rock, pop and hip-hop to classical, especially Beethoven sonatas.' While studying piano, she decided to switch to composing, but this was certainly not encouraged by her environment: 'When I was 16, I composed my first piece, which I wrote out note by note without any outside help. When I played it to the most important person in my life, he kindly but firmly said that composing was something for geniuses like Mozart and Beethoven. I didn't put another note on paper for a year.'

Nourbakhsh, in short, lacks role models and leaves at her 18^e to the United States: 'America was a dream country for me and a relative of mine studied at Goucher College in Baltimore.' Thanks to a scholarship, she can also study piano and composition there herself. America means a 'culture shock' that she won't elaborate on, but she can freely use social media there: 'In Iran, they are censored, with the exception of Instagram.'

Eye-opener

Through Facebook, she got in touch with Anahita Abbasi and Aida Shirazi. It is an eye-opener that she is not the only female composer from Iran and she decides to organise a joint concert. 'Thanks to Anahita and Aida's contacts, our network grew to as many as 20 composing women, about a fifth of whom live in Iran. I put together an ensemble from musician friends and asked the composers to send in pieces; six of them turned out to fit the chosen line-up.'

Due to the excess of submissions, Nourbakhsh understands that not all composers can be covered in a single concert. 'While planning, I had experienced tremendous mutual solidarity and so the idea grew that it should be more of an association, with the aim of creating a network of mutual support and connection. Since such an organisation would be too big for me alone, I asked Anahita and Aida for help. We consulted via Skype and in November 2017, we launched our Facebook page.'

Iranian Female Composers Association starts on 1 April 2018 - no joke

Then the ball started rolling. National Sawdust, a renowned concert hall in New York, gives a big discount on the hall rent. Through crowdfunding, they cover the remaining costs and, on 1 April 2018, IFCA is officially launched. At the concert, the three founding members will meet in person for the first time. Three composers from Iran are not allowed to enter the country because of the entry ban issued by President Trump, two ladies living in Germany have to miss out for other reasons.

A second shadow is the reactions from the Iranian music world. Nourbakhsh: "We would try to attract attention by abusing our womanhood and claiming a victim role. Well, we all know where that kind of criticism takes root. Moreover, it is never expressed straight to our faces, but always behind our backs.'

The concert sold out and received positive feedback. Aida Shirazi: 'We presented different compositional styles, with a good balance between experimental and more traditional pieces, something for everyone. After the concert, the Hypercube Quartet came to us and suggested organising a concert together. That coincided nicely with the Kennedy Center's invitation to present IFCA at their Direct Current Festival in March 2019. That timing was great as it allowed us to celebrate our first anniversary. Thanks to the Kennedy Center's support, we were able to commission three of our members for that celebration concert and also offer a second performance at Roulette.'

Iconoclasts

The concert is appropriately named 'Another Birth', after Abbasi's piece of the same name. This is inspired by a poem by Forough Farrokhzad, a famous Iranian poet who lived from 1934-1967. Abbasi: 'I wrote it in 2015 and the structure is taken from fragments of the poem. We chose this title for our concerts with Hypercube because they represented a kind of rebirth, but especially because Forough was an iconoclast. In her poetry, she pushed boundaries and agitated against the prevailing view of women. She was a role model for us.'

A partnership with the International Contemporary Ensemble also emerges. Anahita Abbasi: 'I had already written an orchestral work for them once, a joint commission with the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra. That went so great that we built up a relationship of trust. I told Ross Kare, one of their artistic directors, about IFCA. He was very fascinated and came to our founding concert at National Sawdust.'

Obstacles

'Afterwards, we brainstormed over drinks about long-term plans. These ranged from simply promoting IFCA at various festivals and performing music by our members to making documentaries and setting up an online library of works by female Iranian composers. That same evening, I introduced him to Nilou and Aida and since then, ICE has become one of our main advocates and friends.'

In August 2019, ICE will perform a portrait concert in the famous Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center. Abbasi: 'The hall was packed, there were even people sitting on the floor. The programme also featured the first three documentaries, others are still in the making.' Since then, they organised several concerts in America and Europe and a large article appeared in The New York Times. Abbasi: "But most memorable for us was the Meet-up via image connection with our members last May. For the first time, we were all together in the same "space" and could see each other. Until then, we had only had email contact with many. It was great to finally meet "in person".'

It has not yet managed to arrange concerts in Iran itself. 'There are still too many obstacles for that,' Abbasi says. 'We are, however, in talks with music teachers and with the Tehran Contemporary Music Festival to create a platform for women composers. We want to fulfil a mentor function for up-and-coming talents and will organise master classes and meetings to hear and discuss each other's music. We also want to make the online library more accessible. Because although the internet is much better and faster now than when I was young, still not everyone has access to it.'

Scarce information

Abbasi recalls how, as a student, she hungered for information: 'Concerts of modern music were virtually non-existent. Occasionally, the German or Austrian Cultural Institute invited an ensemble. A teacher of mine started a small concert series together with a pianist; he composed in the style of Schoenberg. I did hear names like John Cage and Morton Feldman sporadically, but could not possibly find information about them. The internet was SO slow! Moreover, there was only one shop in the whole of Tehran where you could buy CDs and scores. Other than that, you had to rely on acquaintances who had a copy of a copy of the score, which you could borrow.'

Nourbakhsh: 'I attended concerts very rarely, because to do so I had to travel to the capital and was not allowed to do so unaccompanied. What I remember most are a couple of performances of Persian classical music and a solo flute recital with jazz fusion.' Shirazi especially heard a lot of music at home. 'Both my parents had played an instrument but had stopped when they had children. There was a piano in the house, though, and my grandfather was a passionate amateur musician. He played the tar, a Persian long-necked lute, and often improvised on our piano. There was always music playing, Western classical, Persian classical and folk, as well as Western pop music.'

Composing is a profession

Shirazi felt strongly drawn to the piano, but while studying at the University of Arts in Tehran, the composer's blood began to itch: 'I often played chamber music with friends and that was great, but something was missing. Just being a performer did not satisfy me, but that I could become a composer did not occur to me. I had the romanticised image that you then had to show off an exceptional talent at a very young age, and that did not apply to me. Moreover, I did not know a single living composer and the profession of composition did not exist. Fortunately, after a year I got a new teacher, who was a pianist as well as a composer. He encouraged me to work out my improvisations and think outside the box. Thanks to him, I understood that composing is a process, not a miracle that happens to you.'

Away from Iran

All three composers left their homeland to study abroad. Nourbakhsh left for America. 'It was there that I first heard music by Missy Mazzolli, a revelation. She just uses chords, whereas I had learned in music theory lessons that they were in the 20^e-century avant-garde were taboo. In the US, I was able to study composition seriously for the first time. Incidentally, although the situation for women there is much better, it is unfortunately still not ideal either.'

Shirazi chose Ankara, where she studied at Bilkent University, a private institution. 'I felt I was ready for a fresh start in a new environment. Bilkent's programme is very strong and teaching is in English. All my teachers were active composers, were in close contact with big names in the world of new music and had studied in America. Since I had always planned to go to the US, this was an ideal intermediate step.'

Old men 

Abbasi went to Graz, Austria: 'The level of education in Iran is very low. I grew up in Shiraz, but the only university you could attend as a woman was in Tehran. After high school, I went there to sample the atmosphere and the composition teachers turned out to be all old men. They were impressed by my work, but I didn't feel comfortable. That I chose Graz is because, from a Persian perspective, Austria (or Germany) is considered the place to study music. The night before I started my studies in, I attended a concert in Graz. In Iran, I had never got beyond Schoenberg and now I heard sounds I simply could not comprehend. My ears were ringing!'

That one day, together with Nourbakhsh and Shirazi, she would found a union for female Iranian composers she could not have imagined then. But together they form a close-knit team, eager to face the future. Abbasi: "We really want to make a home for Iranian women composers worldwide, we feel a strong underlying solidarity.