Abandonment Engaged in Hateful Action (The Difficulties of Being a Iranian Woman Composer) | 2019

An article in Aftab Network magazine (an informative, news & analytics magazine publishes monthly) September & October 2019, No.48, page: 68 & 69, Editor: Maziyar Habibian

ISBN 2322-2972

Writing an article on Aftab Network entitled "Challenges of Iranian Women Composers". I immediately thought how much easier it is for me to dare to put musical notes on paper than to put words on it.
And I thought I was undoubtedly one of those Iranian women who had struggled with her family and community. Immediately after this acceptance, I was suddenly flooded with many thoughts and memories:
One moment I remembered the face of my father, who was stubbornly opposed to my studies at the Conservatory of Music, and the next moment the face of the conductors who did not accept my symphonic music performance. The words of those who had bothered me and for whom I had cried for days in my privacy. It reminds me the strong passion to be a composer, that took me from the desks of engineering offices to the chair of the University of the Arts to study music...
However, I decided to open the issue and answer their question in this way:
I. Challenges of a composer
II. Challenges of a female composer
III. challenges of an Iranian female composer .

I. Challenges of a composer:
When a work of art is created, the creator of the work knows neither the time nor the place, and this is one of the reasons that distinguishes the life of an artist from others.
“Creation” does not know time and most of the time "untimely" happens. For example, in the middle of a party or in the middle of the night, a musical theme or idea invades their minds. So, one of the challenges that a composer is confronted is a world full of limitations and frameworks, while they need a landless and timeless land.
The next step is to earn money or find a sponsor and finance the executive work of a composer. Independent artists, who write and compose music for their pure music or avant-garde, without order or financial or spiritual support, are concerned at all times about the player's salary and the rent of the hall, the presence of the audience and the contract with the publisher, and many other concerns.


II-Challenges of a female composer:
In general, the professional life of a woman, whether in our society or anywhere else on this planet, has its own problems. Her feminine characteristics, from her weaker physical strength to her maternal duties, complicate her working life. The mother is a creature who responds immediately, and that's something that men composers perhaps don't experience.
If you are both a woman and Iranian composer, you will always face complex social situation and critical economic conditions, which will certainly affect your performance and production.

III. Challenges of an Iranian female composer .
At the same time, you are struggling with legal restrictions and cumbersome rules. On stage as a musician and performer you will have your own strange and special limitations, especially if your instrument is a violoncello or electric guitar!
The Iranian female composer, most importantly, deals with the issue and the sociological patriarchal society. Personally, I have always been annoyed by seemingly modern men who, inwardly, did not consider women superior; not only as composers but also in general by removing women from the music scene.
Unfortunately, such problems for Iranian women in the field of music have led to the emigration or isolation of many of them. Examples include Golnoush Khaleghi, Susan Shakerin, Mahin Zarrinpanjeh, and many other educated composers who specialize in film music or symphonic music and have chosen
Although in the dark and deadlock of the past decades, today there are many light holes and there are better platforms for the presence of women in society, but the efforts of women who did not sit still during these droughts and like stubborn desert plants from They came out and forgot to be present in the field of music: Fawzia Majd, Lily Afshar, Sheida Qara Che Daghi and ...
And it is commendable for the young composers who today are resolutely trying to produce and create their own music, such as: Sara Abazari, Aftab Darvish, Nastaran Hashemi, Aso Kohzadi, Sara Najafi, Mahour moghadam, golfam Khayam…