Khadijeh Ashraf o-Sadat Mortezaie (; 22 March 1924 – 13 October 2010), better known as Marzieh (), was an Iranian singer of Persian traditional music.
Career
Marzieh started her career in the 1940s at Radio Tehran and cooperated with some of the greatest 20th century Persian songwriters and lyricists like Ali Tajvidi, Parviz Yahaghi, Homayoun Khorram, Rahim Moeini Kermanshahi and Bijan Taraghi. Marzieh also sang with the Farabi Orchestre, conducted by Morteza Hannaneh, a pioneer of Persian polyphonic music, during the 1960s and 1970s. Her first major public performance was in 1942, when, though still a teenager, she played the principal role of Shirin at the Jame'eh Barbod [Barbod Society] opera house in the Persian operetta Shirin and Farhad.
Following the Islamic Revolution of 1979 public performances and broadcasts of record albums by solo female singers were banned outright for ten years. Ayatollah Khomeini had decreed: "Women's voices should not be heard by men other than members of their own families."
Upon the death of Khomeini the succeeding leaders suggested that she could resume singing, provided that she undertook never to sing for men. She refused, declaring, "I have always sung only for all Iranians".
Exile
In 1994, Marzieh left Iran forever due to the political repression, making her new home in Paris. and Maryam Rajavi, co-leader of the People's Mujahedin of Iran, delivered her eulogy.
See also
- List of Iranian women musicians