Iranian female DJs shake up dance floors and break taboos

Although mixed-gender raves are illegal in Iran, they take place far from the scrutiny of the moral police anyway, and some of the female DJs who make the crowd dance break taboos and cross cultural boundaries. Some people are pushing it further.

Iran’s Islamic Revolution of 1979 transformed the country’s cultural life.

Pop music was banned as it was deemed not revolutionary, so many musicians fled.At the same time it was declared sinful, or haramfor women to sing.

The thriving pop and cabaret scenes disappeared almost overnight. Still, behind closed doors some things continued as before.

“Indecent” music cassettes and CDs were smuggled from overseas and secretly delivered to people’s homes. Then, after dinner, the lights were dimmed and the living room turned into a dance floor.

“I was always a dancing star. Mehmouni [family party]” says Paramida, currently a Berlin-based DJ, producer, and record label owner.

Paramida’s mother left Iran because she did not want her daughter to live in a country where “women are treated so poorly.” The requirement to wear a hijab was just one of many restrictions she opposed.

She settled in Germany, but was forced to return to Germany in 2002 for family reasons, and Paramida attended school in Tehran for four years. Eventually, she started attending underground parties as well as dancing at her house.

“We all split up into cars, the boys in some cars, the girls in other cars, and we drove out of town. Then we set up the music and lights and everyone danced. And that was it,” Paramida says.

Starting in the late 1990s, a new kind of party culture began to develop in Iran. The arrival of illegal satellites led to the emergence of music channels such as MTV, and soon an underground rave scene.

“The first time I went to a party, the DJ was playing house music,” recalls Nesa Azadika, a 40-year-old DJ born and raised in Tehran.

“I always looked at him and thought, ‘I want that job.'”

A few years later, Nesa became one of the first Iranian women to DJ at underground “free parties,” gatherings of house and techno music held in private invitation-only venues.

In the early days, parties were mainly held in the ski village of Shemshak, nicknamed “Sibiza” after the Spanish island of Ibiza and its world-famous club scene.

But partying in Iran is a crime. Although not mentioned in the Penal Code, people are frequently arrested for underground gatherings and charged with drinking alcohol and socializing with the opposite sex, crimes that can result in fines, prison terms, or caning. .

It’s unclear how many such arrests occur each year, but local news agencies say 300 partygoers were detained at one underground event last November.

And just a few days ago, on March 5, it was reported that at least 11 students at a top university were arrested at a mixed-gender party and received suspensions of up to three semesters.

“My parents always told me that if the police took me to a party, I would be in trouble, so I became very careful,” Nesa says.

Neither she nor Paramida have ever been arrested for attending a rave. But growing up with a constant sense of crisis may have shaped the Iranian music maker’s life.

That’s how the two DJs have been part of progressive calls for change in Iran for the past 45 years, including after the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old accused of wearing a hijab. It’s one of the reasons I feel connected to the women’s movement. It’s too loose.

Palamida said she was moved by the thousands of protesters chanting “women, life, freedom” as protests spread across Iran in 2022.

“that [movement] In fact, it gave me hope that there is a bond between all of us women,” she says.

Together with fellow Iranian DJ Aida, Nesa launched the Woman, Life, Freedom Project, a collection of electronic music by Iranian female artists. This is in conjunction with another initiative she runs called Deep House Tehran, a platform that showcases the work of underground electronic music producers.