"No Land's Song" - the struggle to organize a concert with female performers in Iran

[DetlefK]

I have found trailers in french and german and a teaser in english.

Female singers are allowed to perform in Iran... As long as they sing in choir. It's illegal for a single woman to sing.

Why?

The documentary "No Land's Song" contains a scene where a cleric explains that the voice of a singular woman is too seductive for a public performance. But if three women sing together, their sexy voices neutralize each other. (He used a metaphor about cheese to explain it.)
http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/kino/no-land-s-song-doku-ueber-singverbot-in-iran-a-1081384.html
(article in german)





Sara Najafi, composer and musician, wants to organize a concert where women will perform single. Her brother Ayat Najafi filmed her struggle to get the concert approved. He filmed with hidden cameras and used falsehoods and deception to film in public without suspicion, because otherwise the authorities might just have shut him down.

The documentary "No Land's Song" for example shows the fight with the bureaucracy. In one scene, a bureaucrat finally bursts at Sara's attempts to get her concert approved: "Is there a clear answer on anything in this country? So many things have no specific reason!"

At the end, she gets the concert made... even though she had to use some tricks:
She invited french singers and the french ambassador, reducing the threat of security-forces storming the hall.
And she added a male singer to the stage: This way, the female singers count as his background-singers.

Iranian women sang protest-songs on stage that were originally aimed at the tyranny of the Shah: "Take risks. Demolish the house of tyranny."

It's still a long road ahead, but Sara Najafi brought up the example that the situation has marginally improved for the female national soccer team over the last years: Iranian TV even broadcasts their games!