They didn't kick out the jams, exactly, but you gotta start someplace. Iranian officials swallowed hard over the weekend and tolerated the first pop-music festival since the Islamic revolution 20 years ago. There was no sign of Mick Jagger or Marilyn Manson -- the headliner was Khashayar Etemadi who, according to the Reuters correspondent, regaled the well-mannered crowd with pop tunes "singing the praises of Shiite religious figures [while flirting] cautiously with the overt romantic themes of Western-made Iranian pop music." But even if Etemadi toed the line, Iran's religious traditionalists were not pleased. If anything, the concert served to underscore the growing rift between reformers and fundamentalists.
Mosque Pit
They didn't kick out the jams, exactly, but you gotta start someplace. Iranian officials swallowed hard over the weekend and tolerated the first pop-music festival since the Islamic revolution 20 years ago. There was no sign of Mick Jagger or Marilyn Manson -- the headliner was Khashayar Etemadi who, according to the Reuters correspondent, regaled the well-mannered crowd with pop tunes "singing the praises of Shiite religious figures [while flirting] cautiously with the overt romantic themes of Western-made Iranian pop music." But even if Etemadi toed the line, Iran's religious traditionalists were not pleased. If anything, the concert served to underscore the growing rift between reformers and fundamentalists.
