PARINOOSH ARAMI IN TEHRAN
HE IS more bow tie and suit than bling bling and Nikes, but Iran’s first rap performer is still managing to unnerve the Iranian religious authorities with his social criticism.
Chart-topping Shahkar Binesh-Pajouh targets unemployment, poverty and westernised Iranian girls in his new album, which the culture ministry took four years to approve. The ministry passed it only after he deleted six songs from his original ten.
"Iran’s officials were reluctant to give permission to rap music because of its critical language," he said.
Officials imposed a two-year ban on his live acts in 1999 after hard-line vigilantes broke up one of his concerts at a Tehran music festival.
"I chose rap because I can say many things with it, not because I live like a rapper," says Binesh-Pajouh, 32, a lecturer with a doctorate in urban planning.
The lyrics in his Eskenas album focus on the malaise of poverty. Iran says 17 per cent of its population lives in poverty, but analysts put the figure nearer 40 per cent.
"No-one is born a thief, but you cannot find a loaf of bread at night," he sings. "Have you ever seen your child biting a watermelon skin from hunger in a slum?"
"Eskenas" is Persian for a banknote, and on the album cover Binesh-Pajouh poses like a Chicago gangster, puffing on a fat cigar above a torn $1 bill.
After Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution all but classical or religious music was banned. Restrictions were eased after the landslide victory of the reformist president Mohammad Khatami in the 1997 elections, but Binesh-Pajouh’s music - or more importantly his lyrics - is still deemed at the edge of what is acceptable.
Among the many maxims drummed into Iranian schoolchildren is: "Anyone who is knowledgeable has power; with knowledge the heart of an old person is young."
In Binesh-Pajouh’s scathing lyrics this becomes: "Anyone who is wealthy has power; with wealth the heart of an old person is young."
He is probably on safer ground with the religious authorities when talking about women. He pokes fun at girls who he thinks wear too much make-up.
"Lip-liner and lipstick are more vital than daily bread," he raps.
Iranian girls, he says, would be better off if they followed Persian traditions instead of being infatuated with Western fashions.
The rapper said music should serve as a medium to challenge opinions in Iran, a country where more than 70 per cent of the population of 66 million is under 30.
"I intend to criticise socio-political problems more seriously in the future," he said.
However, Iran’s parliament returned to conservative control in May, and hard-line politicians have lost no time in unravelling liberal reform packages. Cultural reforms are also likely to be threatened.
A young woman browsing through cassettes in a music shop in Tehran’s bustling centre said she loved Binesh-Pajouh’s album.
"I feel wholeheartedly related to what he talks about in his lyrics," she said.
The shop’s owner said Eskenas had sold like hot cakes.