How Ed Sheeran’s song ‘Azizam’ started a conversation on women’s rights in Iran
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Hello, it's Hannah Gelbart here. Welcome to this episode of What In The World from the BBC World Service.

Today we're talking about Ed Sheeran's latest single Azizat. It means my love in Farsi and the song and music video feature a famous Iranian pop star called Gagush who's been living in exile. And the reaction to this song has been huge especially by people in Iran and the Persian diaspora. When I heard it I was like oh my god a Persian word someone's singing Persian. Ed Sheeran is singing Persian. When I was in Iran I used to

listen to his songs, I kind of felt very emotional. My phone was blowing up with people sending me the song. So why has Ed Sheeran embraced Persian culture? And what does Azizam tell us about the music scene in Iran?

Here to tell us more is Gonche Habibiazad from the BBC's Persian service. He joins me in the studio. Hello, welcome to the podcast. Hi, thank you so much for having me. Azizam is really, really catchy. It's a total earworm, but unfortunately we can't play it because of rights reasons. So can you describe the sound, the general feel of the song for people who haven't heard it? So it has got a Persian tune in it as well, as well as a Persian word, Azizam, which means my dear or my beloved in Persian.

He has used Persian instruments in it like santur and daf and we can hear them in the song.

The hook of the song is apparently sampled from an old Persian song that was really famous in the 70s. It's also one of the songs that people still listen to. So that sounded familiar to so many people and it resonated with them. And I heard from two of my friends who are based in Iran that the song is being played in coffee shops and restaurants. So about Ed Sheeran, if I have to say, he already had a huge fan base in Iran.

And when the song's promo teaser was released two months ago, roughly, the fans in Iran went crazy. They were so excited to hear just a Persian word in it.

The hashtag of his name has been trending. The video that was released five days ago on YouTube has been viewed more than 7 million times. Do we know why he chose to write a song with Farsi lyrics? Apparently he worked with an Iranian producer, Iranian-Swedish producer called Ilya. And one day he came up like, do you want to use a Persian word? And apparently Ed Sheeran was very open to it. And here is Ed Sheeran himself talking about how he came up with it. The percussion that Ilya was playing me was more like...

And that instantly sparked something in me. It's kind of similar to Irish traditional music that I grew up with, which is more of a...

But it's, I don't know, just the instrumentation of it I found fascinating. Some people have said that this is all a marketing ploy. How has Azizam landed with critics? It was very, very well received among diaspora and Iranians inside. But I think it kind of had a mixed review with non-Iranians. They said that the song is a bit too generic.

But the thing is, like, when you listen to that song, you can instantly identify those Persian influences. And I can, as an Iranian, assume how it would sound like to a non-Iranian. So I think you have to kind of be familiar with Persian music to understand the song. We wanted to hear from people in the Iranian diaspora. This is Anita Langari, who's a journalist at the BBC World Service here in London. ♪

My phone was blowing up with people sending me the song as if I hadn't already received that 20 times, but I loved it. I've also had some of my friends that aren't of Iranian descent or Persian who have sent it to me as well and now call me Azizan, which I think is really sweet. It's a nice way to share that term of endearment and

I think the biggest thing about this song for me is being able to separate the people of Iran with the politics. And I think this song does that by sharing the warm culture that we have. It was really lovely to see it. And it being such an upbeat song is such a representation of Persian people as a whole. In relation to putting the Iranian artists aside,

at the forefront of it. I think in their own right, they're already quite famous. So it's nice to have it being spread across the rest of the world, as opposed to it being nations within the Middle East that listen to those artists. So I definitely think it's him being able to spot beauty within various differing cultures and giving them a platform to be able to show a beautiful side to it. So I am appreciative that he appreciates it. So it's lovely.

Got it. I want to talk a bit about music and music culture in Iran. Can you talk me through what the restrictions are when it comes to women and music? So Iran, since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, has been enforcing very strict Sharia law on women that prohibits women from singing in public in front of a male audience. And it very much so bans women from singing altogether.

So the thing is, so many women have defied this rule and they have faced the consequences of doing so, especially since the protests of Mahsa Amini that happened in 2022 with the death of a young woman.

There have been a few instances of women going out in public and singing and they have been questioned, summoned by the authorities. They have been prosecuted, they have been harassed. And this is an act of bravery in a sense. You mentioned Masa Amini and that's something we've talked about on the podcast before because her death sparked these massive nationwide protests, in fact global protests. And we did an episode looking at what had or hadn't changed in Iran a year on from her death.

So from my understanding, women are allowed to sing in public, but when they've got a male vocalist, they're not allowed to sing on their own. No, they're not allowed to sing solo. They can only sing like when they're in a part of a chorus with special license. So if they do a singing with a male in public, there is a chance that they're going to be prosecuted. So it's not that easy and simple just to like sing with a male in public. Wow.

Why is it that the government doesn't want women performing alone in public? So it has got many reasons. One of them is political and one of them is according to Islamic laws. So they say that women, when they perform in public, it's an act that could lead to men and women being indecent together and it can lead to corruption. But the issue is in many Muslim countries, we can see that women can sing solo and can appear in public and sing, but

Iran says that it's their own interpretation of the law and women cannot sing. So this is the issue that they're facing. Have there been high profile musicians, female musicians who have broken these rules and sung in public? And what has happened to them?

to them. We have seen some women that have broken these laws and they have appeared in public and they have sang and some of them appeared without the mandatory hijab. Mandatory hijab is another issue in Iran. That's the head covering. It is and it is also enforced on women by the government and Iran has a very, very tight security measures. Like if you post on social media, they are really good at finding your place, finding your whereabouts and questioning and arresting you if you show your face.

I have seen that so many women have taken their singing to social media, to Instagram. Instagram is the most used platform among Iranians, although it's banned. But many Iranians use VPNs and other methods to access Instagram. I've seen that so many use it as their source of income even. But after a while, the authorities sometimes shut their pages down, question them, arrest them. And some of them are taken to locations that sometimes we don't know even their whereabouts.

Are there any figures within government or any very high profile public figures who have called for changes? That's the issue. And if you're inside Iran and you're doing that, you're going to face the issue of maybe you'll lose your job, your source of income.

you will face prosecution if you speak out supporting these women. So we have seen very scattered, very few clerics and governmental people who have supported women singing solo. What we have seen is people outside the country supporting these women.

One of the people who has supported women singing solo is Gugush, who has also been featured in the song with Ed Sheeran. And she's in the music video. She is. She is. And she is also an exiled Iranian female singer.

And she has supported these women. Actually, she went out of Iran after the revolution, but she returned back. She stayed for many years inside the country and for like more than 20 years, she couldn't sing inside. She managed to escape from the country and now she's singing. So if you manage to leave Iran, if you're exiled as a female performer and you do make it big outside Iran, can you ever go back or do you risk being killed?

arrested you risk being arrested definitely like as soon as you step foot in Iran even Gugus she was saying that when she returned back to Iran she was scared that she might even face execution she said in one of her interviews a few instances have returned and they have been imprisoned that has happened and

But female singers outside Iran are thriving, many of them. They sing for diaspora and also sometimes they travel to countries near Iran, such as UAE, Georgia, Turkey, and they perform concerts that usually sell out. And people who can afford, Iranians who can afford to travel, they travel from Iran to other countries to see their shows. Back to musicians in Iran itself.

Is there any way for them to get around this band, to share their work? Is there a thriving underground music scene or does that all get shut down immediately? There has always been an underground music scene ever since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. But with internet, when internet came around, they could share their works more easily. And also, it's not just a restriction for women. It's also a restriction for men as well.

Men also have to go through the process of getting a license from the government. Their melody, their songs, their lyrics, everything has to be approved by the government. And so many decide to opt out of this procedure. And they decide, like so many of Iranian rappers inside the country, they decide to go underground or share their music on Instagram or other platforms.

There is an underground scene, but the way that they shared, they're always in risk of getting harassed by the authorities. There is another issue that the government has, and it is with Western influence. So the Iranian establishment has always opposed the Western sort of liberal influence on Iranian Gen Z and Iranian youth.

And that is something that is very much frowned upon. Like I told you that Ed Sheeran's song is being played in shops and restaurants and everywhere in a sense. But also that comes with its own risks because it's not a song licensed in Iran. So what you see on state TV, you don't usually hear Western music. But at the same time, you know, at the beginning, it was floppies and CDs and they were imported into Iran and Iranians could listen to it.

the music by Diaspora and also the Iranian music inside. But then when satellite TVs came around, satellite TVs are also banned in Iran, but pretty much everyone has one at home. And that is how they access foreign-based channels that they broadcast music, Diaspora music to Iranians. Gonca, what do you think of Azizem?

I'm myself Gen Z and I am an exiled journalist, so I cannot return to Iran. And this song really feels to me. So when I heard it, I was like, oh my God, a Persian word, someone singing Persian. Ed Sheeran is singing Persian. When I was in Iran, I used to listen to his songs on Spotify with ads everywhere.

So now I kind of felt very emotional. I could see how full of emotional you are. Gunje, thank you so much for speaking to us. Thank you so much. That brings us to the end of today's episode. Thank you so much for joining us. I'm Hannah Gelbart. This is What In The World from the BBC World Service and we'll be back with another episode soon. See you then.