Silenced Iranian pop star resurfaces in Bay Area

PIA SARKAR OF THE EXAMINER STAFF

Sept. 22, 2000

©2000 San Francisco Examiner

Banned since 1979, Googoosh sells out tour

The day the music died for thousands of Iranians was the day Googoosh stopped singing 21 years ago.

Famous for her powerful voice, flamboyant style and ever-changing haircut, Googoosh was the beloved daughter of Iran.

But in 1979 - the year of the Islamic revolution - the government extinguished her music, yanking it from the airwaves and forbidding Googoosh and all other Iranian female pop stars from performing in public.

Googoosh's fans never forgot her.

Now, after more than two decades of silence, Googoosh is making a giant comeback, singing in front of sellout crowds across the United States and stirring nostalgia among Iranian expatriates. On Saturday night, she will appear before another sellout crowd at the Oakland Arena.

"I love her - I love her to death!" said Roshan Alizadeh, 33, of Mountain View, who remembers singing Googoosh's songs with her friends on the school bus when she lived in Iran. "I've been a fan ever since I was born."

"It's very hard to be Iranian and not know Googoosh," said Gita Kashani, 32, of Los Altos, treasurer for the Society of Iranian Professionals in Sunnyvale. "She's a legend."

All 14,000 tickets for Googoosh's show in Oakland were snapped up within two weeks in August - 11,000 within the first hour, according to concert promoter Masou Jamali of Caspian Entertainment in Los Angeles. The high demand prompted promoters to book a second show in San Jose on Nov. 5.

Violations of Islamic law

Googoosh, 50, is touring in cities known for their high concentrations of Iranians, such as Los Angeles, where some 600,000 live. There are about 80,000 in the Bay Area.

The Persian pop star still is banned from performing in her homeland because Islamic law - imposed in 1979 - prohibits women from singing or dancing for audiences that include men. But the fact that the Iranian government is allowing her to sing abroad has given some people hope for change, especially under the more moderate leadership of President Mohammad Khatami.

"It's a sign to me that somebody over there is being more flexible, but it's still a tug of war," said Alizadeh's husband, Babak, 39, who left Tehran when he was 16 - two years before the revolution.

Others suspect Googoosh has come as a way to distract the masses from the pro-democracy student uprisings in Tehran that resulted in bloodshed in July.

Regardless of Googoosh's reasons for the tour, her fans are eager for her to return to the stage.

"Everybody was waiting for her - everybody was praying for her to sing again," said Manzar Mahban, 57, of Novato, manager of the Persian Center, a nonprofit in Berkeley. "The people missed her, really missed her."

Kashani said her husband was so excited when he heard Googoosh was coming to Oakland that he bought 10 front-row tickets at $250 a piece. And Mahban said members of the Persian Center collectively plunked down $20,000 to buy a block of 50 prime seats.

"I don't think there's anybody out there who doesn't like her music," said Shahin Tabrizi, 41, of Fremont, who sits on the Persian Center's board of directors. "Anybody who doesn't like her music doesn't like music at all."

Iran's great pop diva

Monier Attar, owner of the Zand Market, a Persian store in Albany, said she has been selling more than 100 Googoosh CDs a week. She will be replenishing her stock with 300 more CDs the day before Googoosh's concert.

Attar said she remembered when Googoosh sang to her first-grade class in Tehran when both she and Googoosh were 6.

"We all grew up with her voice," said Attar, 51, of Albany. "We fell in love with her songs.

Bruce Bahmani, 39, of San Ramon, launched a Googoosh Web site - www.googoosh.com - with two friends in May 1998 when there were only whispers of what had become of the Persian diva.

Earlier this year, when word got out that Googoosh planned a U.S. tour, Bahmani's Web site received 1 million hits. In August, the number soared to more than 6 million.

"She's the only diva of this stature in the Iranian pop culture," Bahmani said. "There were other icons, but nothing like her. She's Patsy Cline, Barbra Streisand and Madonna all rolled into one."

Her songs - written by some of Iran's finest poets - were about relationships and personal growth, not the love songs typical of other pop stars. Her music was rich with flutes, violins and flamenco guitar.

Googoosh started her entertainment career as an actress and singer at age 3, growing up in her country's eye. By the 1960s and 1970s, her profile heightened while her hair and hemlines shortened.

"She did this way back when this was unacceptable," said Kashani, who lived in Shemroon, a suburb of Tehran, until she was 9. "She was received well because she was doing it for a long time. She was the little girl next door. Whatever she did, she was loved."

A moment of mystery

Iranian women watched Googoosh for the latest fashion trends, running to their stylists and requesting "Googooshi" haircuts whenever her coif changed.

Devotees also embraced Googoosh for her bold attitude.

"Googoosh broke the taboo of shyness, especially for Iranian women, and the public loved it when they saw her performance, her singing, dancing, and wearing sexy clothes," said Faramarz Nateghian, 44, of Saratoga, a board member for the Society of Iranian Professionals.

Even after 21 years of silence, Googoosh's stardom has not faded. Some surmise that it is precisely because of her silence that so many fans are flocking to her shows.

"It's the excitement, the mystery," Tabrizi said. "They want to know what she wears, what she looks like, if her voice has changed. People pay a lot of money for that moment."

"She is popular mainly because she's coming from a forbidden city," Nateghian said.

Googoosh also has awakened memories among Iranian expatriates who freely played her tunes in the years before Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini toppled Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in 1979.

"When I listen to her, it is definitely true that I think about my old times, my teenage life," said Tabrizi, who lived in Tehran until he was 18. "My teenage life was very good in Iran."

Then, the revolution

Alizadeh also had a good life. But he remembers visiting Tehran in the summer of 1978 when things turned ugly. "I saw tanks running into Tehran when I went to pick up kebabs with my uncle from my favorite place," Alizadeh said. That year, he left Iran for good and has not returned.

Many Iranian pop stars fled when the government imposed a ban on their music. Some hit the Iranian club scene in the United States, entertaining expatriates with songs they could not hear back home. But Googoosh chose to stay in Iran, even though it meant she could never sing again.

Iranians still listened to her songs in their homes and smuggled her tapes and videos through the black market. Cab drivers also continued playing her music, according to Niloofar Mohtasham-Nouri, 32, of Kensington, president of the Persian Center, who lived through pre- and post-revolution Tehran.

Mohtasham-Nouri, who in first grade had chopped her waist-long hair to match her favorite Persian singer, said that although Iranians were saddened when Googoosh disappeared from the airwaves, music was the least of their worries.

"So much else was going on, like mothers having their sons sent to war," Mohtasham-Nouri said. "Pop music was an easier thing to get around."

Kashani said many Iranian expatriates have not returned since the revolution and that hearing Googoosh sing again provides a connection to their past.

"It brings a lot of emotion back, especially for those who have left Iran and want to remember it," Kashani said. "She brings back all the good memories and fun people had. She's more symbolic of what could have been, what should have been, than anything else."