Shahin Najafi (Persian: شاهین نجفی) (born October 3, 1980 – Bandar-e Anzali, Iran) is an Iranian singer-songwriter and guitarist currently residing in Germany.
Najafi was born in 1980 in Bandar-e Anzali in Gilan Province of Iran. He studied sociology in university, but failed to obtain a degree after expressing a desire to learn sociology from within society rather than a classroom.[1] Originally working as a poet in Iran, he was also trained in both classical and Flamenco style guitars He also began working with several underground music groups in Iran.[1] Under pressure from the Iranian government to remove the political messages from his music, he immigrated to Germany in 2005, and began performing with Tapesh 2012The group was well received by the Iranian community and media, in part due to Najafi’s socially and politically charged lyrics. He left the group at the beginning of 2009.[citation needed]
Najafi’s songs are a mixture of protests against religious governments, poverty, sexism, censorship, and drug addictionThe song The Power Of Students In Iran focuses on harassment encountered by progressive students in Iran, while We Are Not Men is a response to the government’s attempts to suppress the burgeoning movement to secure equal rights for women.
