Israeli-Persian actress and singer Liraz Charhi, whose song “Zan Bezan” (“Women, Sing” in Farsi) has turned into an Iranian protest anthem, secretly collaborated with Iranian artists in Istanbul on her latest album, “Roya”. The recording challenges the Tehran regime, which forbids cooperation between Israelis and Iranians.
In an Istanbul basement hidden from view, Israeli singer Liraz Charhi, who records as “Liraz”, brought together her Tel Aviv sextet and musicians from Tehran to create her third album in secret. "Roya" (Fantasy in Persian) was released in October.
It was a risky project for the four musicians from Iran. Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, the Iranian regime has considered Israel an enemy state. Travelling to Israel or collaborating with Israelis is strictly forbidden and subject to punishment in Iran.
The Iranian violin and tar (Persian lute) players had contributed, via the Internet, to Charhi’s second album. But this was the first time they found themselves in the same room with their Israeli colleagues in Turkey, one of the few countries accessible to Iranians without a visa.
To guarantee their anonymity and safety, their names do not appear on the album cover and their faces have been blurred in all the promotional photos and videos. Similar precautions were taken during a concert in a synagogue in Krakow, Poland last summer, when the Iranian musicians appeared masked.
"It was a bit like being on a secret mission for almost a year. We knew it was dangerous, but we had agreed not to talk about it," Charhi told FRANCE 24. "But as soon as we met, fear turned into joy and the dream became reality during the ten days of recording...it was magic."
‘The story of my life’
Born to Iranian parents who immigrated to Israel a few years before the 1979 revolution, Charhi discovered Iranian music in the early 2010s, when she moved to Los Angeles, where there is a large Iranian community.
Although her parents spoke Farsi back home in Israel, they rarely dicussed Iran. They preferred to leave the country of their origins behind to better integrate into their adopted country.
But when Charhi arrived in Los Angeles, she experienced an epiphany of sorts.
"I found out I had family there and that's when I fell in love with Iranian culture and started to explore this heritage...I had this need for Iran, I can't explain it," said Charhi, who knew almost nothing about the country of her ancestors at that time.
The 44-year-old artist's work has since focused on reconciling this complex and often painful double identity. As an actress, she is well known for her role as a Mossad agent in the Israeli series "Tehran". In the hit spy series, her character arrives on her first undercover mission in Tehran, which also happens to be Charhi's birthplace.
"She wonders whether she is Israeli or Iranian, or both. This is the dilemma of my character, and this is the story of my life," Charhi told French daily, Le Monde in 2020.
‘The real leaders of this revolution’
Charhi's pop and psychedelic songs, performed in Farsi, draw much of their inspiration from the 1970s golden age of Persian popular music. On her first album, the musician chose to pay homage to two female figures of that era, Gougoush and Ramesh, whose careers were shattered by Iran's religious authorities in 1979.
"I have two daughters. I am raising them to understand how crazy it is to be a woman in this world, but that, at the same time, we have this strength, this power to dream our dreams," the singer said on FRANCE 24.
In the context of the brutally repressed demonstrations that have shaken Iran since the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, Charhi’s latest album sounds like a cry for freedom for all Iranian women. "Dance with me as if there was no revolution, and let's walk together towards the sun", the singer urges on the track "Bishtar Behand".
Charhi’s track "Zan Bezan" from her previous album has also become one of the demonstrators’ anthems and accompanies many protest videos on social networks.
"What I am doing with my music is very small, but at the same time it is a way to talk about the situation of women in Iran. They embody freedom and are the real leaders of this revolution," said Chahri. "I hope that one day my Iranian friends and I will be able to play together there, when Iran is finally a free country."
This article is a translation of the original in French.
