08-03-2025
Mahdieh Mohammadkhani Returns to L.A. for The 2025 Farhang Foundation Nowruz Celebration
Mahdieh Mohammadkhani never wanted to leave Iran. It's the country where she grew up, and where her family and friends remain, but her artistry and desire for freedom was something she was unable to fully express in her a musician, Mohammadkhani faced restrictions in Iran. Under the conservative religious government, Iranian women are only able to sing in public if they're part of a choir, or as solo artists for female-only audiences."I never had any permission to perform in the country, and all my performances were always outside of Iran," she this, Mohammadkhani is a globally acclaimed classical Iranian singer."I've always wanted to stay in Iran, even with all the restrictions that were imposed on me as an artist," Mohammadkhani tells me. "But I have [left] because of the "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement and the Mahsa Amini incident."She's talking about the 2022 tragedy when Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman died in custody of Iran's morality police (the Gasht-e Ershad) after she was detained for not wearing her hijab properly (as part of the mandatory Islamic dress code). Following Amini's death, the country fought back and protests rang all throughout the region and the movement quickly grew under the slogan "Woman, Life, Freedom."Mohammadkhani's global performances have only recently resumed because as punishment for her support of "Woman, Life, Freedom," her passport was confiscated and she was stuck in Iran until January 2024.
"Over the last few years [in Iran] I was also forbidden to work, even as a [music] instructor, and I was forbidden to leave the country to go and perform outside of Iran," she feminists have been protesting and organizing against the conservative religious rule since its theocratic government was established in 1979, but the government has continued to rule. Amini's death gained global recognition and it became the largest act of protest since the 1979 revolution. This series of protests in Iran left close to 20,000 people arrested and more than 500 dead, as reported by the Human Rights Mohammadkhani's travel ban was lifted, she fled to Dubai, where she currently resides."In picking a country for exile, I selected a country that is closest to my homeland. And in a way, I feel like I still have connections to Iran through the Persian Gulf. I feel my roots there," Mohammadkhani living in Dubai, Mohammadkhani has resumed performing and is "determined to focus on [her] career and expand [her] recordings and live performances," she says.
As part of her return, the Iranian singer has come to the United States for the first time in over a decade to perform at the Farhang Foundation's Nowruz concert at Royce Hall UCLA on Sunday, March 9. The concert is part of the Foundation's annual Iranian New Year Celebration in L.A., which begins with a day-long Nowruz festival."Our sole mission is to celebrate and promote Iranian art and culture for the benefit of the global community," says Alireza Ardekani, the CEO of the Farhang Foundation.
The Farhang Foundation is a non-political, non-religious, and not-for-profit organization that was founded in 2008 by a group of philanthropists in Southern California."The reason the organization was established was because our founders felt that what the general [public] sees about or hears about Iran is what they see on the news, and specifically, what the current government of Iran is doing," he says. "All the beauty of our culture, our history, our poetry, our every contribution that Iran and Iranians have made to the world over centuries was really simply forgotten."The California-based organization is one of the largest Iranian cultural and arts organizations in the world—globally, they reach over 8.1 million people. This year's free day-long Nowruz festival will begin at 12 p.m. at UCLA's campus. The 6 p.m. concert following the festival will be held at Royce Hall and features Mahdieh Mohammadkhani, Cameron Shahbazi, and The Iranshahr Orchestra."We invite everyone to come and celebrate Nowruz because Noruz is a festival that you don't have to be Iranian to celebrate," Ardekani says. "It's a celebration of mother nature, spring, rebirth, and just the beauty of nature."
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