Barrameda has a wide international reputation
Mixed concerts are illegal in Iran, but they happen anyway, far from the eyes of the morality police. In this atmosphere, some female DJs fill the halls with songs and music, breaking taboos and crossing the limits imposed on them. The BBC went to interview them.
The Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979 turned the country’s cultural life upside down.
The Islamic Revolution banned pop music, which was considered non-revolutionary, causing many musicians to flee. At the same time, the authorities ruled that women’s singing was forbidden and contrary to religious teachings.
This wiped out the once thriving pop music and nightclub scene overnight. But behind closed doors, some things continued as before.
“Inappropriate” music was smuggled into the country from abroad, and illegal cassette tapes and CDs were secretly delivered to people’s homes. Then, once dinner is over, the lights are turned off and the living rooms become dance halls.
“I was the dancing star at every family party,” says Barrameda, now a DJ, producer and record label owner based in Berlin.
Barrameda used to go to balls in Iran and Germany
Barrameda’s mother left Iran because she did not want her daughter to live in a country where “women are treated very poorly.” The mandatory wearing of the hijab was one of the restrictions she opposed.
She settled in Germany, but in 2002 she had to return for family reasons, and for four years Barrameda went to school in Tehran. It wasn’t long until she was dancing not only at home, but also attending secret parties.
“We would separate in cars, guys alone and girls in other cars alone,” Barrameda said. “We would go out of town. Then we would turn on the music and lights and everyone would dance.”
Barrameda was born in Germany
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, a new type of party began to emerge in Iran. With the arrival of illegal satellites, music channels such as MTV appeared, and underground concerts soon appeared.
DJ Nessa Azadekhah, 40, who was born and lives in Tehran, recalls, “The first time I went to a party the DJ was playing musical genres he had prepared.”
“It was exciting, I used to look at the DJ all the time and say to myself: ‘I would love to have that job.’”
A few years later, Nessa became one of the first Iranian women to work as a DJ at secret “free parties,” which were dance parties to techno music in private, free venues.
Nessa was one of the first female DJs in Tehran
In the early days, parties were mostly held in the ski resort village of Shemshak, nicknamed “Chipiza” after the Spanish island of Ibiza and its famous nightclubs.
But partying in Iran is considered a crime. Although not included in the penal code, people are often arrested at clandestine gatherings, and accused of consuming or supplying alcohol, or mingling with persons of the opposite sex – crimes that can be punished by fines, prison sentences, or flogging. .
It is not known how many such arrests occur each year, but 300 partygoers were arrested at one secret party last November, according to reports from local news outlets.
Just days earlier, on March 5, at least 11 students from a major university were reportedly arrested at a mixed-gender party and suspended for up to three semesters.
“My parents always told me that if the police caught me at a party, it would be a problem,” says Nessa. “That made me very careful.”
Neither she nor Barrameda has ever been arrested for attending concerts, but living with a constant sense of danger may have shaped the lives of Iranian music makers.
This is one of the reasons why Nessa and Paramida feel like they are among the women’s movements that over the past 45 years have been part of progressive calls for change in Iran, especially after the death in the police station of Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian woman who was accused by the police of not “wearing the hijab tightly.”
Barrameda says she was moved by thousands of protesters chanting “Women, Life, Freedom”, as protests erupt across Iran in 2022.
“I am a woman, I want to live, I want to be free, and she gave me this,” she says [الحركة] “In fact the hope is that there is a connection between all of us women.”
Nyssa agrees with her.
“‘Women, Life, Freedom’ is for women all over the world,” she said, and believes the Iranian movement has made the world “see itself in a different light.”
She and her fellow Iranian DJ, Aida, started the Women, Life and Freedom project, in which they collected electronic music from a group of Iranian female artists. This comes in conjunction with another initiative she runs called Deep House Tehran, a platform that showcases the work of electronic music producers in Iran and the Middle East.
Both Nessa and Paramida feel that a woman going to an underground electronic music concert is an act of defiance and a political statement, in a traditional and religious country like Iran.
“Since most of the things we care about are taboo and forbidden, when we start doing and pursuing these things, we are essentially breaking taboos and rules, and these actions turn into acts of disobedience and protest,” Nessa told the BBC.
“I do what is forbidden to many women in Iran, which makes me a living example of protest,” Barrameda says.
The global dance music industry is known to be heavily male-dominated, but it was much worse when Barrameda and Nessa started working as DJs in the 2000s.
“I remember the reactions were not very positive,” Nessa said. “The dancers were looking at me in strange ways.”
The problem has not completely disappeared yet.
“Sexism is still there, but it’s completely different,” says Nessa, who was the first female DJ in Iran and has witnessed how the scene has changed. She says there are currently at least 10 other female DJs in the underground music world.
“All my life I was told, ‘You can’t do this, you can’t do that because you’re a woman,’ and I would say, ‘I can, and you’ll see,'” Barrameda said. “By the age of 25, I was a DJ at the best underground parties and had my own record label.” “.
She currently works as a DJ at Panorama Bar in Berghain, a popular nightclub in Berlin.
For several years, her applications for a visa to European countries were rejected, as happens to many other Iranian artists.
Nessa has applied many times for a visa abroad
But she also began to feel that her career would not be possible in Iran. She tried to go to licensed events, but she says that those events are constantly cancelled.
“They keep canceling my permits, and it has become clear to me that I can no longer work in my country,” Nessa said.
But she finally got the opportunity to practice her art abroad. “It was in 2017, and I was invited to play in Yerevan, Armenia. It was the Persian New Year. The club was loud, and I received great feedback, which gave me good energy,” she said.
She has now obtained a one-year residency in France through the Global Talent Visa programme.
“I feel now that I have to work harder and faster, there is more competition here,” Nessa said as she prepared for a dance party at a club in Liverpool.
Her ability to work abroad also instilled in her a sense of collective responsibility.
“I am here now, but many female DJs in Iran do not have this opportunity, and it is my duty to help others perform in Europe.”
Barrameda at a dance party
Barrameda now plays in nightclubs and festivals in countries such as Japan and Brazil. She spoke to BBC 100 Women from Ibiza, where she was preparing for a concert in one of the famous clubs on the island, but she has not returned to Iran since 2006.
“One of my biggest dreams is to be able to come back and give a concert in Tehran!” She says, “How cool would that be?”
Nyssa feels the same way.
“Playing music outside Iran frees me, and I don’t have to worry about being arrested,” she said.
“But there is no other place with the underground party atmosphere in Iran.”
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