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Marzieh Obituary

By Trevor Mostyn

Mazieh obituary - -

By Trevor Mostyn


Marzieh obituary

One of Iran's greatest classical singers, in exile she championed the Mujahideen

marzieh
Marzieh in Rochester, New York, in 1998. Many of her songs in exile were Mujahideen anthems, which antagonised the artistic community. Photograph: Kevin Rivoli/AP

Until the revolution of 1979, Marzieh, who has died aged 86 of cancer, was celebrated as one of Iran's finest classical singers. However, the departure of the Shah and the installation of a government led by Ayatollah Khomeini then compelled her to remain silent. In 1994, she left for Europe, where the Iranian community welcomed her as its greatest star. This changed somewhat when she allowed herself to become the de facto cultural ambassador of the controversial Mujahideen opposition movement.

Born Ashraf os-Sadat Mortezaie in Tehran, Marzieh was inspired to sing by her mother, who came from a family of musicians. Her father was a mullah who went against religious tradition by encouraging Marzieh to go into formal education. She started performing in the 1940s at Tehran Radio, working with Persian songwriters and lyricists such as Ali Tajvidi, Parviz Yahaghi, Homayun Khorram, Moeini Kermanshahi and Bijan Taraghi. In 1942, as a beautiful 17-year-old, she played Shirin at the Jame Barbud opera house in the Persian operetta Shirin and Farhad.

She had been a last-minute replacement for Maleke Hekmat Shuar, who had walked out. The inexperienced Marzieh had such stage fright that she had to be pushed on to the stage by a fellow actor who said: "If you want to become famous, go on stage now." Her performance was a huge success.

When Tehran Radio started its Gulha (Love) Programme in 1954, she was its principal singer and became increasingly popular. As well as singing traditional songs, she also sang with the Farabi Orchestra, conducted by Morteza Hannaneh, one of the pioneers of Persian symphonic music in the 60s and 70s.

She sang classical songs, never, unlike many other artists, compromising her work by appearing in nightclubs. Her style was lyrical; Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak, of Maryland University, described its "really sinuous, winding tones, notes and melodies". At various times she performed for Queen Elizabeth II, for the German chancellor Konrad Adenauer, and for Richard Nixon – once in Tehran and once in the US.

However, after the revolution not even pre-existing recordings of female singers were broadcast. Khomeini decreed that "Women's voices should not be heard by men other than members of their own families." Marzieh countered this, saying that Islam did not prohibit women from singing, that the prophet Muhammad enjoyed great voices and that his granddaughter Zeinab had been a gre



    
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