Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By Shervin Hajipour, Independent 2022.
Baraye by Iranian singer/songwriter Shervin Hajipour has become the anthem of the Iranian protest movement initiated by the death of Kurdish/Iranian woman Mahsa Amini after her arrest by the Iranian Morality Police.
It is alleged that Mahsa Amini was beaten to death for not dressing appropriately.
Apparently, her head scarf was not sufficiently covering her hair and her pants were too tight.
Shervin Hajipour turned the outrage in Instagram posts into an amazingly powerful song that has not only been adopted by young protesters as the anthem they sing at protests, in the classrooms, and wherever else they publicly gather but also defiantly blare from car stereos.
Shervin was arrested two days after posting Baraye to his Instagram page and authorities have deleted it from all social media pages and other media platforms.
Their clampdown hasn’t worked for the clip was viewed 40 million times in the first 24 hours on Shervin’s Instagram page alone, not including all other platforms, and the song is being sung by compatriots at protests in cities around the world.
This beautiful, emotional, and powerful song has become one of the most important songs in Iran’s recent history and it’s flooding the nominations inbox for the Grammy’s newest award category that honours a song dedicated to social change.
Baraye roughly translates as ‘because of’ or ‘for’ and the word starts every line in the song.
For dancing in the streets For fear when kissing
For my sister, your sister, our sisters For changing the rotten brains
For the girls wishing they were boys For yearning for a normal life… etc.
Shervin Hajipour has been released on bail and is awaiting trial.
Meanwhile the protests go on and show little sign of abating.
To a regime, that maintains control through fear, protest songs are particularly dangerous because they are very difficult to contain.
While Shervin’s song is banned from broadcast in Iran it’s virtually impossible to stop it being sung, and the more that authorities suppress it the more defiant the singers are and the stronger the song becomes.
So far Baraye has received more than 100,000 nominations for the Grammy for Best Song For Social Change.
What the final count will be is anybody’s guess.
Baraye will be one of the most important songs for this generation and will be sung forever.
