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Marzieh obituary One of Iran's greatest classical singers, in exile she championed the MujahideenUntil 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 great orator. She told the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs in 1995: "The Prophet was the messenger of the emancipation of women. The point is that these mullahs by no means represent true Islam. They misuse and harm Islam. True Islam is represented by the Mujahideen." She said that 150,000 people had been jailed and tens of thousands executed, including "children, pregnant girls". She repeated her previous public statements that when virgin girls are sentenced to death in Iran, they are routinely raped by agents of the regime because the mullahs believe that "otherwise their souls would go to heaven".Unable to perform, Marzieh spent 15 years in her two big houses in central Tehran, in the cultural and historical Niavaran district to the north of the city, or in her small country house further out. She told the Chicago Tribune in 1995: "I used to go to the countryside and sing to the mountains, the birds, for the water, for the hills, just to avoid my voice reaching one mullah. [The ruling clerics] said music was only for the wicked. I was becoming a pale autumn leaf. If I had not come to Paris and met [the Mujahideen], what would have happened to me? What would a nightingale do if you put her in a cage? She would die in 24 hours."The People's Mujahideen of Iran is a religious leftist organisation that calls for the overthrow of the Islamic republic. It was founded in 1965 and follows the ideals of the liberal prime minister Mohammad Mossadegh, who was ousted by the US and Britain in favour of the Shah in 1953. The movement won notoriety when its leaders allied themselves with Saddam Hussein during Iraq's war with Iran from 1980 to 1988. Furthermore, the movement was alleged to have assassinated several US citizens during the 70s, although it argues that this was the responsibility of a Marxist faction that had split from the main, Islamic, faction. Britain removed it from its list of terrorist organisations in 2007 and the EU in 2009.The movement helped finance Marzieh in Paris, not least by buying her a five-storey building where she entertained celebrities. She befriended Maryam Rajavi, the wife of Massoud Rajavi, its leader, and became the movement's key publicist. Many of her songs in exile were Mujahideen anthems, which antagonised the artistic community.France, wary of annoying Tehran, had not allowed her to break her silence in 1994. This she did at the Royal Albert Hall, London, on 24 March 1995. When I heard her there, I was moved by her fine mezzo-soprano voice, but troubled by the political content of some of her songs. In exile she worked mostly with the Paris-based composer Mohammad Shams and the tar soloist Hamid Reza Taherzedeh. Her songs remained joyful, rather than sad, but many saw her output merely as Mujahideen propaganda.After she became an activist, she performed in Los Angeles and various European cities until her final major appearance, in Paris in 2006. She also lived for some time at a Mujahideen training camp in Iraq, singing from the tops of tanks by way of encouragement. The international press compared her to Greece's Melina Mercouri and Britain's Vanessa Redgrave for her readiness to put her beliefs ahead of her career and personal safety.By her first husband, a cinema owner, she had a daughter, Hengameh Amini, who trained as an architect. Though never involved in politics, Hengameh was arrested and held incommunicado in prison after her mother defected, although she was quickly released after protests from Amnesty International. Last March she died of cancer. Marzieh's second marriage was to Malik Afzali, who predeceased her. They had a son, who survives her. When Marzieh died, Maryam Rajavi declared three days of mourning. • Marzieh (Ashraf os-Sadat Mortezaie), singer, born 1924; died 13 October 2010IranThe Iranian revolutionTrevor Mostynguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
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