How does music censorship work in Iran? Are all types of music forbidden?
BG: Look, basically, all music is forbidden. Even in traditional music, you can’t have a woman singing on her own, there have to be three or four voices together. On Iranian state television, you cannot show a musical instrument, since they say they are forbidden. If you want to play music, you have to have permission. You have to present your recordings to the Ministry, who will demand certain changes, or simply refuse permission outright. There is no government support whatsoever for music, which is considered an illicit activity. With this film and this music, I feel closer to God than before. And film censorship? BG: It’s exactly the same, worse even. Over three years I went to the Ministry of Culture more than 200 times to seek authorisation. Every time, after 4 or 5 hours wait, they told me “come back again and we’ll see”. When I wanted to finalise the screenplay and the direction of the story, I would have to go to the Ministry and I lost so much time and energy with all this. W
BG: Look, basically, all music is forbidden. Even in traditional music, you can’t have a woman singing on her own, there have to be three or four voices together. On Iranian state television, you cannot show a musical instrument, since they say they are forbidden. If you want to play music, you have to have permission. You have to present your recordings to the Ministry, who will demand certain changes, or simply refuse permission outright. There is no government support whatsoever for music, which is considered an illicit activity. With this film and this music, I feel closer to God than before. And film censorship? BG: It’s exactly the same, worse even. Over three years I went to the Ministry of Culture more than 200 times to seek authorisation. Every time, after 4 or 5 hours wait, they told me “come back again and we’ll see”. When I wanted to finalise the screenplay and the direction of the story, I would have to go to the Ministry and I lost so much time and energy with all this. W
