The current protests for more women’s rights in Iran now have their own soundtrack. Iranian singer-songwriter Shervin Hajipour released his song “Baraye” (Persian: ‘For…’) on September 27th. Hajipour was arrested two days later, but the song has since become a hit.
The song garnered around 40 million views on Instagram in just two days. True, he was later removed from the 25-year-old singer’s Instagram account. However, this does not detract from the popularity of the title: since then it has been uploaded to various platforms again and again. On YouTube, multiple uploads of the song have each reached half a million views.
Hajipour composed the lyrics from online comments from demonstrators, in which they explain why they are taking to the streets. “To be able to dance in the street,” it says, for example, or “for women, life, freedom”.
“Baraye” is heard worldwide
“This [Song] has brought down Persian social media tonight,” wrote BBC correspondent Bahman Kalbasi on Twitter. “So many of us cried listening to it over and over again. Artist Shervin Hajipour has summed up the deep national sadness and pain felt by Iranians for decades, culminating in the tragedy of Mahsa Amini.”
This has broken Persian social media tonight. So many of us have cried listening to it over and over. The artist Shervin Hajipour has summed up the deep national sadness and pain Iranians have been feeling for decades, culminating in the tragedy of #MahsaAmini. #مهسا_امینی pic.twitter.com/KsNJwcVATc
— Bahman Kalbasi (@BahmanKalbasi) September 28, 2022
The protests in Iran began after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini on September 16. She had previously been arrested by the vice squad for allegedly not wearing her headscarf correctly. Witnesses accuse the police of beating her into a coma. Since then, protests have flared up all over the country, directed against the violence by the moral police and the headscarf requirement, but also directly denouncing the regime of the Islamic Republic.