Zan Bezan
It's been a year since Israeli/Iranian actress, model and chanteuse Liraz Charhi dropped her stunning debut album "Naz" on Tel Aviv's Dead Sea Recordings, "taking cues from Iran’s fiery and defiant female musical icons like Googoosh and Ramesh" and weaving her own narrative into the empowering mix. Now, 40 years after the Iranian Revolution and with the sad news of the situation in Iran going haywire once again, Liraz just released a powerful uptempo track entitled "Zan Bezan", a strong and colourful invitation to women all across the world to revolt and regain their freedom.
In a message on her official Facebook page, Liraz recently shared a beautiful personal statement, which we would like to publish here:
"I wrote 'Zan Bezan' (Women, Sing) when I was eight months pregnant. I was sitting in my studio, wondering what I can do with these extreme feelings about how extreme Iran became.
I’m an Iranian born in Israel. My parents left Iran before the revolution. I grew up with parents who tried hard to erase their roots and be as Israeli as possible after they left all their memories behind. Although I inherited their culture and stories, all my life I felt foreign. Physically I was in Israel but my mind, heart and soul were in Iran.
There isn’t one second during the day when I don’t think of Iran. I feel my roots burning in my blood and calling me - asking me -to sing. In Farsi. My home language. I feel that is the only way to find the answers to my deepest questions. Who am I, where did I come from, and what I really want to be. What do I pass on to my two daughters. I can’t stop wondering what would have happened if I was born and raised in Iran. Would I be singing? or escaping Iran to be able to sing?
After growing up with the beautiful women in my family, who got married at ages 13, 15... and had been forced to be silent, I needed to raise my voice and try to make a little change with my art. For me it’s a dream coming true. Especially today, in these chaotic times in Iran. It’s been 40 years of silence for women.
Iran is not mine, nor my parents’s anymore. Yet I know exactly how to describe its beautiful places, it’s smells, it’s colours. The song I wrote is a symbol of struggle against the suppression of women. In the video, I am myself, singing with Iranian women and to all of you."
"Zan Bezan" is accompanied by a striking and beautifully choreographed music video, directed by Istanbul's Mu Tunç, which you can watch below. Our thoughts and hearts are with those, struggling to be free in Iran and elsewhere.
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