minority of people are making cultural decisions on behalf of an immensely populated country.
Controversy surrounds this year’s Fajr Festival Before this year’s Fajr Festival of Music (February 21st - 27th, 2011) the Ministry of Culture announced that pop music would be including in the program, but that it would be removed from the competition section of the festival.109 Hamed Shahabadi, the deputy minister of art justified this move by stating, “Pop music is a genre that is not compatible with our norms and values. This music is damaging our own national music. That is why we removed pop music from the competition section of the festival.”110 Pop music entered the competition section of the 23rd Fajr Music Festival (2008) after being reviewed in the ‘research’ section for three years.111 Pop singer Khashayar Etemadi said, “Right now, there are a lot of obstacles for pop music. This genre of music is prevalent in society but no consistent rulings have been made either for or against it.”112 Frustrated and overwhelmed by the government’s harsh crackdowns on music in recent months, many musicians opted to boycott the festival. Speaking with the press, Hossein Alizadeh said, “It seems that many of the works performed in the festival are actually government commissions ... Music is an art that 109. Tabnak, "Pop Music has been Removed from Fajr Music Festival," Tabnak News Site, December 26, 2010, http://goo.gl/gnNUq. 110. Ibid. 111. Images of some of the performers, including the mixed gender pop group Arian Band are available online at http://www.payvand.com/news/08/jan/1007. html 112. KhabarOnliine, "Pop Music is in a Vague State," Khabar Online, July 21, 2009, http://www.khabaronline.ir/news-77579.aspx.
Cultural Censorship in Iran
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