Hi everyone!
First of all, I owe you all a big apology for the missing episode earlier this month. I wanted to publish this research about Qamar two weeks ago, but I got laid off from my job and I’ve been going through a mad scramble trying to apply for jobs ever since. I’ve just been a little overwhelmed trying to get everything done. But! The episode that was supposed to go live today—a spooky 👻 episode for Halloween—will just go live next week, and then I’ll be back on the normal schedule I laid out.
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And now on to the episode!
🎙️ Transcript
0:05 Hey everyone, welcome to Unruly Figures, the podcast that celebrates history’s greatest rule-breakers. I’m your host, Valorie Clark, and today I’m covering Qamar-ol-Moluk Vaziri, the Queen of Persian Music. But before we jump into her life, I want to give a huge thank you to all the paying subscribers on Substack who make this podcast possible: Katie, Ana, Hunter, Jim, Daniel, Casey, John, Andrew, Stefan, Skyler, Elizabeth, Honor, Michael, and Reda. Y’all are the best. If you want to support Unruly Figures and my mission to make exciting history more available to folks, you can do that at unrulyfigures.substack.com That’s also where you’ll find episode transcripts, photos, and more.
0:46 All right, let’s hop back in time.
0:47 Qamar-ol-Moluk Vaziri was born under the name ‘Qamar Khanum Sayyed Ḥosayn Khan’ in Iran, in 1905.
0:54 This is as good a place as any to interrupt myself and say that uhm, hey guys–I don’t speak Farsi. I’m going to do my best with pronouncing words in Farsi here–I looked up a bunch of pronunciations on the internet and asked some friends–but please forgive me when I inevitably get things wrong,okay? Cool? All right, thanks.
1:12 Okay, so the exact date and place of Qamar’s birth are somewhat under speculation, blurred by, quote, “conflicting anecdotal and speculative accounts.”1 The most commons claims I saw are that she was born in Tehran or in Takestan, a city and county in northern Iran. Qamar’s father, Mirza Sayyed Ḥosayn Khan , died a few months before she was born, and her mother, Ṭubā, died about a year after.
1:34 Her childhood coincided with an enormous governmental and cultural shift for Iran: The Constitutional Revolution. In 1905, protests broke out in response to the imposition of a tariff to repay a loan from Russia. The loan had been extended to the Shah Qajar, who was known for weakness and extravagance. In dire financial straits, he had signed away numerous concessions to foreign powers that were realy terrible for like everyday Persians. Together, members of the aristocracy, religious authorities, and the intelligentsia began advocating for reduced royal authority, freedom from foreign domination, and a more established rule of law.
2:11 Strikes erupted across Tehran and thousands took refuge at the British embassy in the city. Which I find a bit ironic, sheltering at the British Embassy, because Britain was actually one of the main foreign powers using financial leverage to weaken the Persian Empire, but I guess it worked in the moment. From there, the protestors issued demands for a national parliament. Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar agreed to cede some power to a parliament in August of 1906, after all these protests. In December of that year (when Qamar was just over a year old) the Shah signed a new Persian constitution, making the empire a constitutional monarchy. And… then he promptly died a few days later.
2:49 His son, Mohammad Ali, came to power in January 1907. Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar was not sympathetic to the reformers and worked against their progress. He dissolved the parliament and abolished the Constitution, saying they both were contrary to Islamic law.
3:04 Then in 1908, the discovery of petroleum in Khuzestan, in modern southwest Iran, really spelled trouble for the country. Britain and Russia had been fighting for influence over Iran for years by this point, and this really renewed their interest in gaining control over the land. They began jockeying for power, in what became known as The Great Game, which I think says a whole lot about their attitude toward Persian people [at this time]. Britain and Russia established spheres of influence in the country, ignoring Persian sovereignty and making the already unstable Qajar regime even weaker.
3:36 Relying on the political and military support of Russia and Britain, the Shah tried to violently put down pro-Constitution forces. He was defeated and deposed in July 1909, and his 11-year-old son Ahmad Shah was put on the throne. Ahmad was of course helped by regents until 1914, which is when he came to his full power, but he was only 16 years old at that point. He inherited a very weak government and a terrible economic situation, putting him at the mercy of foreign influence once again. It was too much for a 16-year-old who’d never really been taught how to rule, and so unsurprisingly things went very badly for Ahmad.
4:14 The 1920s saw a bloodless coup d’etat that sent the Qajar dynasty into exile and established Reza Khan, a military officer, as the first shah of the Pahlavi dynasty, which lasted until 1979. I’m not going to take us through the history of Persia and Iran until 1979 just because that’s like… a whole podcast! It’s 60 years of history that’s full of attempts at coups and foreign intervention and rising political forces and of course modernization–so much happens in that period that we’d never get back to Qamar if I started telling that story. But it’s a really important and interesting history, that really plays into what’s going on in Iran today, so I strongly encourage you to go look into it if you’ve got, you know, ten minutes to read a Wikipedia article. Just learn a little bit about this backstory because it’s fascinating. I’m going to get back to Qamar now, but I wanted you guys to give that background before we get into this story because this political turmoil that really serves as a backdrop to Qamar’s life.
5:09 So after the deaths of her parents when she was a newborn, Qamar was raised almost entirely by her paternal grandmother, Mollā Ḵayr-al-Nesāʾ, who was a performer. The two lived in Tehran, in “the then-middle-class Sangelaj neighborhood.”2 (And I’m probably pronouncing that wrong I couldn’t find a pronunciation online so my apologies.) During Qamar’s youth, her grandmother’s fame as a singer grew and she became a narrator who performed stories about the tragedy of Shi’ite martyrs [of] Karbalā at religious gatherings inside the Shah’s harem for his wives and their female servants.”3 Qamar’s grandmother taught her classical Iranian music, and when she was just seven years old, Qamar began accompanying her to the harem for these religious recitals.
5:50 It’s worth pointing out here that our Western understanding of a harem is very skewed and based hugely in Christian propaganda against Islam. Yes, within Islam any man, including the Shah, could have multiple wives, and yes they lived in private enclosed quarters either in the palace or nearby. But harems were not this like erotic place of sexual license and free for all and violence like has been depicted really unfairly across time. In fact, Professor Leslie Peirce redefines harem as, quote, “redolent of religious purity and honor,” end quote, comparing a harem basically to sacred places, not prisons.4
6:25 Harems existed in normal homes too. They were places for women to escape the quote, “coarse world of men.”5 Essentially, they were just private family quarters, large rooms where women could retire unveiled and alone or with only the men of their immediate family. It was a private space closed to the outside not as a prison but as a retreat. So wives and concubines of Islamic ruler in both Persia and the Ottoman Empire were not exactly slaves–there were real enslaved people who lived there, but they had no sexual contact with the ruler and were there to serve the women exclusively.6
6:59 In the Ottoman Empire, the Sultan’s mother, called the valide sultan, lived among these women. The sultan’s children also lived at the harem in the care of their mother, as did their wet nurses. Moreover, when a woman had a son with the sultan, their sexual relationship often ended so she could focus on raising the man who might one day rule the empire. The Persian dynasties adopted a lot of these practices and traditions from the Ottomans. So we have evidence that women within the Shah’s harem wielded political and financial power across time–they were not helpless.7 There were of course exceptions to this, on both good and bad sides, but the idea that harems always were morally corrupt places were men could abuse women with drugs and sexual assualt and give them as sexual slaves to any of their friends is Christian propaganda.
7:44 And now I’m going to get off my soapbox because this has very little to do with this story, but it’s a misconception that I see a lot and it drives me crazy.
7:53 So again–Qamar’s grandmother was officially appearing in harems essentially leading mourning services for Shi’ite martyrs. In fact, she was talented that the Shah bestowed a title on her which I’m probaby going to pronounce terribly: Efteḵār-al-Ḏākerin, which means “the most Glorious of narrators.” As I mentioned, when Qamar was seven years old, she started assisting her grandmother at these religious services. She began accompanying her to, quote, “less formal women’s religious gatherings, funerals, as well as birthdays and anniversaries. During these gatherings, the musically precocious Qamar was able to a learn a great deal by ear from her grandmother [...] about the modal and tonal qualities of the Shiʿite religious elegies, lamentations, and meditations.”8 End quote. She learned the music by hearing it, and began accompanying her grandmother when she sang. Qamar would grow up to be revered for her mezzo-soprano voice that she learned in these ceremonies.
8:44 Meanwhile, Qamar attended elementary school, where she learned to read and write, then Madrasa-ye Nāmus for girls in her neighborhood. There she developed a love for classical Persian poetry, which she would hold on to for the rest of her life. She began attending festive musical gatherings at a family member’s house, which is where she met tār player Musā Naydāwud in 1922 or 1923, we’re not quite sure. Her grandmother had passed away by this point, so her musical education had sort of stalled out, other than being at these musical gatherings. But impressed by her naturally strong voice, Musā Naydāwud offered her singing lessons. For two years she trained with him, and there’s even sort of some idea that she may have lived with him or another musical student of his.
9:29 And then, after two years of training, in 1924, she made her first public appearance of a harem or private home. And this is a huge deal. She sang in the sumptuous banquet hall of Tehran’s Grand Hotel to a mixed-gender audience. From the perspective of 2022, it can be hard to understand why this is such a big deal. But it was the first known public appearance of any Persian female vocalist. Usually, society was highly segregated by gender–women were not allowed to sing in front of men, period. Not only did Qamar do this, but she did it without wearing the customary veil, called a hijab, which signaled several huge cultural shifts that were happening at this moment.
10:09 Remember, Persia kind of didn’t have a ruler at this moment–the young Shah had been exiled the year before, and it would be another year before Reza Shah Pahlavi was formally the legal monarch of Iran. While there was a government in place during this time, I think the national focus on the transition from the Qajar dynasty to the Pahlavi dynasty made room for a growth in Western ideas, including opposition to gender segregation. I think at almost any other time, her appearance unveiled would have been a much larger scandal than it turned out to be.
10:41 Of the experience singing at the Grand Hotel, Qamar said:
“After the concert a strange fear came over me. A few thousand people had gathered in Laleh-Zar street [where the Grand Hotel was located]. When I was going back I was afraid that some wanted to kill me because I had received some such news, which made me more worried. Eventually I made it, under the protection of the police, through the crowd, some of whom looked angry and irritated.”9
11:04 End quote.
11:05 In another article, which from the context sounds like it was published much later, Qamar is also quoted saying:
“That night was my most memorable night, I will never forget. When I entered the hall, it was full of people. I went on stage and was given a large bouquet of flowers and everyone was clapping. This welcome experience gave me a lot of self-confidence. After the concert, I was called to the police station and I was told that I can no longer appear on stage without a veil. But I did not listen; I went on stage many more times without covering my hair and sang.”10
11:34 End quote.
11:35 And I want to note that this bravery is coming from a nineteen-year-old. She was nineteen at this concert!
11:41 The other major cultural shift, as I mentioned before, is the less acknowledged freeing of music from the quote, “confines of the private homes of the rich.”11 End quote. Today, we have music on demand 24/7, but think about it–before recording music was invented, music could only really be heard if it was sung live, and talented/trained singers had to be paid so only the wealthy could have music on command. Before the technological innovation of recording music and before performers like Qamar started giving public concerts, some people may have never heard music sung by a trained and talented vocalist. Not to say that they didn’t have music, of course I’m sure people sang as they worked and did the laundry, as we do today when we drive in our cars, but it’s the difference between, you know, singing to yourself and going to a concert, right? Some people may have never done that, may have never heard music sung by someone trained as a singer. And Qamar was a uniquely talented vocalist for them to hear for the first time.
12:39 So this performance had a huge impact on future generations of especially Persian female vocalists but really the music scene in general, all the way up until 1979. It made it okay for women to appear on stage without veils, to appear alone at all–both things that had been previously banned under Iran’s religious culture. And the beauty of her voice that night made her instantly famous. It was, quote, “accurate, uncommonly projective, strong, and emotionally evocative,” and while she was on stage she had a, quote, “precociously confident and poised presence.”12 She went from singing mourning songs to being one of the biggest musical talents in Iran at the time.
13:20 Soon after this performance, Ali Vakili, the founder of Sepah Cinema in Tehran, scheduled a 6-day appearance for Qamar… that ended up getting extended to six weeks. It just kept selling out. Tickets went for as high as 50 Iranian tomans, which was apparently twice the monthly salary of a government employee.13 People who couldn’t get tickets would stand outside and listen quietly night after night.14 The public loved her.
13:45 So now famous, Qamar began to receive invitations to perform for other people, including the Shah. You know, Qamar’s grandmother had raised her singing in the harem for the women and children who lived there, but never for the Shah himself, and so this was a really big deal that she performed in front of him, alone, maybe only with a musical accompanist.
14:06 She continued to give frequent concerts around Tehran, in formal venues like the Grand Hotel, but she also in more casual concerts where the regular public could come hear her sing. Legend has it that during her performances, members of the audience would get so excited that they would, quote, “place money, jewellery, anything of value on the stage for her.”15 She became, quote, “particularly noted for her extraordinary ability in performing of the taḥrir, a falsetto break between higher and lower notes in the melody line of the āvāz, a signal trait of Persian traditional music.”16 End quote.
14:39 In 1925, Qamar changed her name. Her only extant birth certificate was issued in Tehran that year, and it notes that her last name changed from Sayyed Ḥosayn Khan to Vazirizāda, which she chose in honor of the musician ʿAli-Naqi Vaziri.17 She had to know him actually, in fact, as he was only about 18 years older than her and was known as a virtuoso tār player. After studying both Persian and Western music, Vaziri opened a music school in Tehran, as well as a music club for revolutionary and progressive people to socialize. He was known as, quote, “a highly articulate and charismatic man [who] exerted influence on nearly everyone who came in contact with him. This was particularly true of his pupils who held him in great esteem.”18 End quote. So while one might be tempted to see something romantic in Qamar changing her last name to his while probably knowing him and playing music with him, it probably was not romantic. In fact, traditionally Persian women don’t change their last name to their husband’s upon marriage, so seeing it that way is putting a pretty Western lens on her name change.19 That said, he was single during the 1920s after separating from his first wife in 1918, so I guess it’s possible but it doesn’t seem probable and there’s no evidence for this. Also, I didn’t find any record of Qamar ever marrying–in fact, no one talks about her personal life much at all. So who knows? Maybe it means something, but it probably just means that she greatly respected him.
16:00 In the late 1920s, probably around 1927 or 1928, Qamar began recording Persian songs for the German music company Polyphon Musikwerke. She made several recordings for the company and there’s actually a chance some of those discs still survive, though I wasn’t able to find any. It would be really cool to find one though because my Persian friends and family remember her as the first Persian female voice ever recorded. I couldn’t find that completely backed up by official documentation, but I do trust their recollections. Qamar may very well be the first Persian woman ever whose voice was ever recorded and broadcast. Significantly, she was definitely the first female vocalist to record political songs, such as the Constitutional Revolution song Mārš-e jomhuri.20
16:40 So, she recorded some and continued to perform at festivals and musical events regularly until 1941, when she made her radio debut on Radio Tehran. She continued to make these appearances weekly throughout the 1940s. She also spent this time collaborating with other Persian musicians and lyricists. Despite being very groundbreaking herself in many ways, she kept her musical style faithful to Persian tradition. After a childhood of singing lamentations at religious ceremonies, her voice could be both powerful and plaintive, and incredibly emotive, a lot of other musicians really appreciated this about her. A lot of lyricists wrote songs or poems for her to perform throughout her career based solely on this balance of breaking ground but also remaining true to tradition.
17:25 In 1951, Qamar made an appearance in the film Madar, which in English translates to Mother, directed by Esmail Koushan. She acted alongside Delkaš, another Persian singer. Most places list the movie as lost to time, but according to IMDb, the plot follows a teen girl named Robabeh, who is tricked and impregnated by a man she knows (the synopsis on IMDb isn’t clear, but it sounds like this might be a sexual assault). Afraid to shame her family, she gets a job singing in a cabaret, which is probably where Qamar appears. However, the father reappears and in kind of an ensuing argument, Robabeh kills him. She goes to jail while the family raises her daughter in her place. Eventually, Robabeh is released in time for the daughter’s wedding but tries to go into hiding to avoid shaming her, but the daughter goes after her and brings her back. I think it’s a happy ending? It sounds really sad. But anyway, that was Qamar’s one known film appearance. Like I said, most people claim that there are no known copies of the film left, unfortunately. But maybe someday someone will find one!
18:22 Outside of her singing, Qamar was known to be really politically progressive and outspoken about politics and women’s rights.21 She was apparently very compassionate for the poor and the powerless–she bought small houses for people who were houseless, paid debts for strangers, provided beds for hospitals, and even provided dowries for girls whose families couldn’t afford one.22 There’s a legend that she actually died destitute because she gave so generously to non-profits and causes–there’s evidence to refute this though. When she died, she was recorded as having a monthly income of around 800 tomans, which was about the salary of a university professor at the time.23 So she certainly was not actually destitute. I think somebody probably originated that legend to emphasize how giving she was, but it also sort of makes her look bad with money, so I just want to clarify that she wasn’t actually giving so much away that she couldn’t eat. Let’s not glorify hurting yourself to heal others.
19:13 In the early 1950s, Qamar had a stroke. It mostly ended her singing career, as it left her fairly confined to her home, and it seems like somewhat disabled, though there’s not a lot of detail about how this stroke impacted her. She made her final appearance on the radio in 1956, but her voice was, quote, “drastically diminished” by then from her illness.24 Nevertheless, she left behind a great legacy of over 200 beloved Persian songs. Some people say she recorded as many as 426 songs, though a lot of those recordings have been lost to time.25 When she died a few years later, her body went through traditional washing and preparation. But the local mosque actually refused to accept the body of a woman who had sung in public without a veil.26 So she was buried without ceremony, possibly in an unmarked grave, and without mourners.
Qamar died on August 14th, 1959, which was 20 years before the Islamic Revolution in Iran began silencing female voices. Today, women aren’t allowed to sing alone on stage, because it’s seen as too sexually arousing for men. In 2014, a documentary called No Land’s Song followed composer Sara Najafi’s quest to hold a public concert in Tehran featuring female soloists singing on stage. It’s a direct challenge to the misogynistic laws silencing female voices, and apparently, it credits Qamar with inspiration for the women in it. Reviews of the documentary are laudatory–it’s won a bunch of awards–but unfortunately, it’s not streaming anywhere. You can find clips of it on YouTube though, and I recommend you try to watch it if you can of it. I’ll put some links in the show notes.
20:45 Obviously, I wanted to cover Qamar because of what’s happening right now in Iran. As I record, we’re on day 30 of protests in response to the murder of Mahsa Amini. It is heartbreaking and infuriating to see how women are subjugated against their will under the current oppressive regime. It’s equally inspiring and terrifying to see footage of people fighting for freedom and equality. I hope this moment will be a turning point when we see increased equality and freedom in Iran again, room for more women like Qamar to live full lives as they see fit. If you haven’t done any research on this growing movement, I really recommend you take a few minutes and look into it right now.
21:20 Well, that is the story of Qamar, still remembered as the Queen of Persian Music. I hope you enjoyed this episode of Unruly Figures! If you did, please tell a friend about it. You can also let me know your thoughts by following me on Twitter and Instagram as @unrulyfigures, or joining us over on Substack. If you have a moment, please give this show a five-star review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts–it really does help other folks find this work. Thanks for listening!
🔗 Promised Links
📚 Bibliography
Books
Duncombe, Laura Sook. Pirate Women: The Princesses, Prostitutes, and Privateers Who Ruled the Seven Seas. Chicago Review Press, 2019.
Websites
“Encyclopaedia Iranica: Harem.” Encyclopaedia Iranica, Encyclopaedia Iranica Foundation, https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/harem-i.
“Encyclopaedia Iranica: Qamar-Ol-Moluk Vaziri.” Encyclopaedia Iranica, Encyclopaedia Iranica Foundation, https://iranicaonline.org/articles/qamar-vaziri.
“Encyclopaedia Iranica: Vaziri Ali-Naqi.” Encyclopaedia Iranica, Encyclopaedia Iranica Foundation, https://iranicaonline.org/articles/vaziri-ali-naqi.
Evason, Nina. “Iranian Culture: Naming.” Cultural Atlas, https://culturalatlas.sbs.com.au/iranian-culture/iranian-culture-naming.
Hjellegjerde, Kristin. Soheila Sokhanvari, Still, Life (Portrait of Qamar-Ol-Moluk Vaziri), 2019. https://kristinhjellegjerde.com/artists/50-soheila-sokhanvari/works/2652/.
“Qamar-Ol-Moluk Vaziri , First Iranian Woman Who Sang on Stage.” NCRI Women Committee, 20 June 2020, https://women.ncr-iran.org/2020/06/09/qamar-ol-moluk-vaziri-first-iranian-woman-sang-stage/.
Zolghadr, Shahnaz. “Iranian Women You Should Know: Qamar-Ol-Moluk Vaziri.” IranWire, https://iranwire.com/en/special-features/61492/.
Documentary Clips
Najafi, Sara. “No Land's Song (2016) - Excerpt 1 (French Subs).” YouTube, Unifrance, 4 Mar. 2016, https:///www.you tube.com/watch?v=yutHuicxCe0&ab_channel=Unifrance
“Encyclopaedia Iranica: Qamar-Ol-Moluk Vaziri.” Encyclopaedia Iranica, Encyclopaedia Iranica Foundation, https://iranicaonline.org/articles/qamar-vaziri.
Encyclopaedia Iranica: Qamar-Ol-Moluk Vaziri
Zolghadr, Shahnaz. “Iranian Women You Should Know: Qamar-Ol-Moluk Vaziri.” IranWire, https://iranwire.com/en/special-features/61492/.
Duncombe, Laura Sook. Pirate Women: The Princesses, Prostitutes, and Privateers Who Ruled the Seven Seas. Chicago Review Press, 2019.
Duncombe, 64
Duncombe, 64
“Encyclopaedia Iranica: Harem.” Encyclopaedia Iranica, Encyclopaedia Iranica Foundation, https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/harem-i.
Encyclopaedia Iranica: Qamar-Ol-Moluk Vaziri
Zolghadr
Hjellegjerde, Kristin. Soheila Sokhanvari, Still, Life (Portrait of Qamar-Ol-Moluk Vaziri), 2019. https://kristinhjellegjerde.com/artists/50-soheila-sokhanvari/works/2652/.
Zolghadr
Encyclopaedia Iranica: Qamar-Ol-Moluk Vaziri
“Qamar-Ol-Moluk Vaziri , First Iranian Woman Who Sang on Stage.” NCRI Women Committee, 20 June 2020, https://women.ncr-iran.org/2020/06/09/qamar-ol-moluk-vaziri-first-iranian-woman-sang-stage/.
NCRI Women Committee
Hjellegjerde
Encyclopaedia Iranica: Qamar-Ol-Moluk Vaziri
Encyclopaedia Iranica: Qamar-Ol-Moluk Vaziri
“Encyclopaedia Iranica: Vaziri Ali-Naqi.” Encyclopaedia Iranica, Encyclopaedia Iranica Foundation, https://iranicaonline.org/articles/vaziri-ali-naqi.
Evason, Nina. “Iranian Culture: Naming.” Cultural Atlas, https://culturalatlas.sbs.com.au/iranian-culture/iranian-culture-naming.
Encyclopaedia Iranica: Qamar-Ol-Moluk Vaziri
Encyclopaedia Iranica: Qamar-Ol-Moluk Vaziri
Hjellegjerde
Hjellegjerde
Encyclopaedia Iranica: Qamar-Ol-Moluk Vaziri
Zolghadr
Hjellegjerde
Episode 19: Qamar-ol-Moluk Vaziri