(L) Actrees Marjan, (R) Iranian pop star Arghavan who fled the country in 1979. As of late, she has been involved in attempts to bring music back to Iran, at the risk of imprisonment.

Even as a kid in the 1970s I was well aware of The Iranian Revolution. It was a top headline for quite some time because its consequences were so profound. The pro-Western Shah was overthrown and replaced with the rabidly anti-Western Ayatollah Khomeini. Any Western cultural influences were rejected overnight in favor of a hard-line Islamic state. Matters between the West and Iran got even worse when the dethroned Shah fled to the US, and the Iranians responded by holding diplomats hostage. Almost thirty years later, things haven’t changed much.

Let’s have a look at the fashions before the revolution. Now, Iranian women have to fight for the right to be able to expose hair under their headscarves. But in the 60s and early to mid-1970s it was quite a different story… Continue reading »