Alizadeh also illustrated a system of double standards and discrimination in Iran, saying, “We have to ask the cultural authorities why some music is getting performance permissions in Tehran, but the same music is not getting permission to be performed in another city. This shows discrimination on the part of the government between the people of Tehran and the people of other cities.”104 Many musical performances scheduled for smaller towns have been stopped or banned as a result of pressure from the leaders of Friday prayers or the commanders of the Revolutionary Guard Corps either the night before or on the very day of the performance. Hossein Alizadeh added, “Unfortunately, many individuals in smaller towns make arbitrary and hasty decisions about music. If they wish, they allow the concert to happen and if they do not, they just cancel it as they wish.”105 The convoluted permission-seeking process, double standards and overbearing regional discrimination is having a negative effect on the evolution of music within Iran. Alizadeh argues, “If we had diversity in Iranian music, and a democratic-thinking government … then not just one person would be able to decide what is music and what is not music based on personal or religious preferences.”106 Tehran-based record label Hermes was finally given permission to release Alizadeh’s album Be Tamasha-ye Abha-ye Sefid (Endless Vision, 2005) after a year of the recording “sitting in Ershad’s screening office.”107
104. Ibid. 105. Ibid. 106. VOAPNN, "Censorship has Harmful Affects on Iranian Music." 107. Shadi Vatanparast, "Fajr Music Festival, Alireza Assar’s Concert and Pezhvak Sounds Again ," Tehran Avenue, January 2005, http://www. tehranavenue.com/print.php?ln=en&id=311.
Cultural Censorship in Iran
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