BBCPERSIAN — broadcast
20260915 090000 UTC
114 transcript segments
Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API (Chirp) + Gemini 2.5 Flash Non-Thinking
Data courtesy of The GDELT Project (https://www.gdeltproject.org/), from the Internet Archive TV News Archive.
Machine transcription. Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a verbatim quotation record.

[00:22:27] Oh, what
[00:22:31] a grain it burns then
[00:22:34] it wakes up our lips.
[00:22:38] Your head turns off your heart. I
[00:22:42] went to Jeddah without
[00:22:45] returning. They blackened
[00:22:48] the colors of the rainbow one by one.
[00:22:51] Where should we hide our love?
[00:22:55] Let's
[00:22:58] break the devil's heart and eyes.
[00:23:00] Let's
[00:23:03] see where the light passes through our chest.
[00:23:06] Believe me,
[00:23:08] I know
[00:23:10] very well,
[00:23:12] I know how
[00:23:15] kind you are.
[00:23:19] The redness of October, we are light
[00:23:22] against darkness. Woman, life,
[00:23:26] freedom.
[00:23:31] My right is my weapon. I resisted. I am
[00:23:34] above my wounds, my legs. I will not surrender, I will
[00:23:38] not accept, and for you, my country, I
[00:23:41] will not be
[00:23:43] a display of a concert by a female singer
[00:23:47] in the streets of Tehran has been a consequence
[00:23:51] of the US-Israel war with Iran, an act
[00:23:54] unprecedented in the Islamic Republic. In the last
[00:23:58] week of April, a video was circulated
[00:24:01] on social media in Iran showing a public performance
[00:24:05] of a concert by Julia Boutros, a Lebanese
[00:24:08] female singer, at a gathering of
[00:24:11] supporters of the Islamic Republic in Ferdows Garden in Tehran.
[00:24:14] The broadcast of this video comes at a time
[00:24:17] when female singers in Iran have always
[00:24:21] faced serious obstacles to performing their songs
[00:24:24] since the Islamic Revolution. In the law of
[00:24:28] the Islamic Republic, a woman's voice is not officially
[00:24:32] forbidden, but it has become more of a jurisprudential
[00:24:35] and political issue, and there are various jurisprudential
[00:24:39] fatwas. Some believe it is totally forbidden,
[00:24:42] or that if it does not incite, then a woman's voice
[00:24:46] is not forbidden. What food she eats on her lips.
[00:24:53] These restrictions have gone so far that they even
[00:24:56] apply to music for children. Solmaz Naraghi
[00:24:59] is a singer who mostly works in children's
[00:25:02] music. Perhaps the best
[00:25:06] example I can give you is the Tati Tati album
[00:25:09] itself, which contained songs I composed for my niece
[00:25:13] when she was born. I waited for 10 years
[00:25:16] to find a way to bypass this unfair and irrational law.
[00:25:21] And a law that in fact does not allow
[00:25:25] a woman's voice to be released as a solo
[00:25:29] and must always be approved by a male voice.
[00:25:32] When I posted my work on Instagram and
[00:25:36] it suddenly went viral, it attracted a large audience,
[00:25:40] and because of that, I was summoned to court twice
[00:25:43] for the impact I had on children, and probably because
[00:25:47] I performed some of my work without hijab, they accused me of various crimes,
[00:25:50] such as promoting corruption, indecency,
[00:25:54] and creating
[00:25:56] obscene content, which really cost
[00:26:00] me a lot. When I saw the accusations
[00:26:03] against me, I was really upset for a day. I was
[00:26:07] like someone who had been hit on the head. It seems
[00:26:10] the Islamic Republic's goal in displaying street concerts,
[00:26:14] especially a concert by a female singer, is to
[00:26:18] arouse patriotic feelings and attract a general audience,
[00:26:21] as well as to keep its supporters in the streets.
[00:26:25] This is a policy that has been announced
[00:26:29] and implemented as an official policy since the beginning
[00:26:32] of the war. They can use issues like
[00:26:36] a woman's voice or a woman's hijab in
[00:26:39] a dual way. For example, by showing a woman singing
[00:26:43] a song that affirms the values desired by the government,
[00:26:47] they show that a woman's voice is not forbidden and women
[00:26:51] can sing. Who says there is pressure on women's
[00:26:54] voices? And also, their own ideology
[00:26:57] is ultimately promoted and instilled.
[00:28:33] In addition, at the same time, another music video
[00:28:36] called "Take Me to Tehran" has been published and
[00:28:40] re-shared on the social media accounts of forces
[00:28:43] close to the Islamic Republic, which serves as an advertising
[00:28:46] platform for the Iranian government. In these accounts,
[00:28:50] the singing of this song has been attributed to Julia
[00:28:53] Boutros, but no trace of such a song can be
[00:28:56] found on her YouTube and Instagram
[00:29:03] channels. It was revealed that this work was created
[00:29:06] with artificial intelligence, and even the author of
[00:29:10] the work confirmed this. He probably thought
[00:29:13] this song was consistent with Julia's political views.
[00:29:17] However, no official reaction from Julia Boutros herself has been
[00:29:21] published confirming or denying this matter. In
[00:29:24] any case, investing in promotional activities and
[00:29:28] using singers and well-known figures
[00:29:31] has been common for promoting various political
[00:29:35] factions and governments. However, it seems
[00:29:38] that the Islamic Republic, in its current sensitive
[00:29:42] and critical situation, has been forced to
[00:29:45] ignore the restrictions and boundaries that it
[00:29:49] has imposed throughout its entire existence on women's
[00:29:52] voices.
[00:30:23] Our situation is warlike. If you betray your country
[00:30:27] by inviting the enemy and want to create insecurity,
[00:30:30] we will consider you an enemy.
[00:30:33] We will deal with them as we deal
[00:30:36] with the enemy. The Iranian police commander's
[00:30:40] warning for street protests says security forces
[00:30:44] are even more prepared than before the war.
[00:30:46] The security atmosphere in Saqqez on the anniversary of
[00:30:50] Mahsa Amini's death. Reports indicate the Iranian government's
[00:30:53] efforts to prevent the commemoration ceremony.
[00:30:57] We ask two injured people from the Woman, Life,
[00:31:01] Freedom protests what happened to them during this period.