David Dalle
Thursday March 7th, 2024 with David Dalle
Iranian singer Maliheh Moradi's "Our Sorrow" which addresses the injustice women face in Iran today. Sarathy Korwar "Live in Mumbai".

Iranian singer Maliheh Moradi studied tombak and singing from an early age and later attended the Tehran Conservatory of Music, where she studied with such musical titans as Shajarian, Parisa, Hossein Alizadeh and others. She is an accomplished classical Persian singer but she had to face the heartbreaking choice too many Iranian women are forced to make: her country or her freedom. Women are only allowed to perform publicly in Iran as members of an ensemble but there must be at least three females and one male singer present. And no one female can be heard over another, for that would be considered as displaying too much independence. She had no path open as a solo singer--the pinnacle of Persian classical music--in Iran, so she emigrated to the United States. She has since pursued her solo singing career. Her new album "Our Sorrow" is a collaboration with santur player and composer Ehsan Matoori. They delve into the difficulties, injustices, and contradictions of being a woman in Iran and created nine songs with beautiful, evocative poetry. An example is the ninth song "A Tale of Sorrow": "We reached the end without ever starting, Our feathers scattered, without ever flying, Forgive us, forgive us, oh luminous face of love. Recognize me, I’m a sorrowful tale, I’m a dark legend about a burdened night, Bitter, gloomy, shattered, poisoned, Oh friend! Have you recognised me? This is me. We reached the end without ever starting, Our feathers scattered, without ever flying." We will hear the album with some Persian and Canadian compositions mixed in.