“Music Concerts Need Government Supervision”

Another high-ranking official, the Member of Parliament for Bandar Abbas, Abolqasem Jarareh, has voiced his concerns that the music industry in Iran enjoys too much freedom, calling on the government to supervise music concerts.

“Unchecked music concerts need to be supervised by the government,” Mr Jarareh said. “It shouldn’t be allowed that just anyone can organize a music concert in Bandar Abbas,” reported Jonub Press.

“Bandar Abbas has become a city renown for its music concerts, something which is ruining popular traditions,” said the MP for Bandar Abbas.

Mr Jarareh represents an area encompassing Bandar Abbas, Bandar Khamir, Qeshm, Abu Mousa, and Hajiabad, all located in southern Iran.

To hold a concert in Iran, organizers need to have official permission from the Ministry of Islamic Guidance.

In recent months, some religious groups and clerics have called for concerts to be banned, especially in Iran’s holiest cities.

For instance, in early April, Mashhad Friday Imam Ahmad Almolhoda said that he opposed "concerts in the city of Mashhad,” whilst emphasising “ but not music itself.”

Conservative sections of society also frown upon Iranians, and especially unmarried young Iranians, from taking up dance classes.

However this has not stopped a recent underground dance class craze among people wanting to learn the likes of tango, samba, salsa and zumba.

These lessons are not openly advertised because the state’s Islamic morality codes forbid unrelated women and men from mixing in private. This means instructors are forced, for the most part, to rely on word of mouth in order to get news of the classes out.

Despite these obstacles, music and dance, both traditional and popular, continue to be widespread and a fundamental part of Iranian culture, both for the old and young alike. 

Read the original article in Persian