The culture and art division of the Institution of Imam Khomeini has announced that a music festival is planned for the celebration of the religious founder of the Islamic Republic next year. Due to the fact that Khomeini himself aspired to poetry in his youth (of which several pieces have been used for lyrics by domestic artists), the institution has made it clear that POP music will have its special place in the festival! This rather controversial news is further underpinned by the latest BBC reported news about Ayatollah Khamenei’s thoughts and comments regarding music and the need of reviewing and reconsidering the (religiously) legal conditions and regulations in relation! The question is what these indirect signs of legitimization of music, the POP music in particular, indicate more importantly why “now”! Last time they loosened restrictions and legalized POP back in 1997 it gave an illusion of liberty, eased the public pressure and bought the regime some time. Will this religious legitimization of POP do the trick this time around, in the direct aftermath of this summer’s events?!

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 18th, 2009 at 2:49 pm and is filed under Iranian Music, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.