ABSTRACT
The restrictive attitudes of the post-revolutionary Iranian government towards many cultural activities led to drastic changes in the musical atmosphere of Iran since the 1979 revolution. Popular music, dance and female solo singing faced complete bans, and for a time the only types of music heard in the public were revolutionary songs and religious hymns. From the earliest days, however, people and musicians began challenging the bans either by openly defying them and facing the consequences or by devising creative methods to sidetrack them. The constant attempts of people and artists to expand the domains of music forced the government to ease the restrictions on classical and regional Iranian music from the mid-1980s and then from the mid-1990s onward to allow some forms of popular music and stylized dance forms to reappear in public. 1 The ban on female solo singing, however, has remained in place except for female-only performances.
