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Monday
May 19, 2001

I see a Googoosh in myself

I read an artilcle written by Mr. Tabib about Googoosh ["Romanticizing the past"] in which there are some misunderstanding which I would like to point out:

1. Googoosh has never claimed that she is a feminist heroine, and in her Noruz message for Voice of America she said "I am only a singer and and actress and will always be as such. My God is my aspirations and my music." Those who believe that she lives up to the standards of an icon or symbol are people like me, the suppressed and TOOSARI KHORDEH women in Iran.

2. Googoosh's silence in the past 20 years was a symbol of all the pain and pressure that other women have been going through, and her re-emergence also showed the hope that one day beauty and love and goodness will prevail. She chose to stay home just to say that she till loves her country so much that she prefers to live inside Iran, no matter what kind of regime is ruling it.

3. Her disapperance was for two reasons. Firstly, due to the Muslim holy months of Moharam and Safar, in which she never sings, and she had the same habit before the revolution. And secondly, she has been shooting a movie in Cuba.

4. I am a middle-aged Western-educated doctor, who lives in an affluent part of Tehran, but I see the depth of Googoosh's popularity even among the poorest layers of the society, of which most of my patients come from. On the day of her Toronto concert, I witnessed all the people in the hospital sticking their BBC-tuned radios to their ears just to know the latest news. That day was the day of Googoosh all around the country. I sure hope they never intended to "show off their flashy outfits to their relatives" as Mr. Tabib put it.

5. I have thought about the Googoosh phenomenon for such a long time, and wondered why has this dimunitive woman has become a member of the family for all of us. I think the reason is the fact that her life story is the life story of each and every one of us, the repressed and isolated women of Iran. Living in a fanatic country, raising under the tyranny of father (and in this case stepmother) and later being misused and milked by husbands. Men who use us and then throw us away whenever they like it. Because the law permits them to do so. After the revolution she was forced to stay home and that proved that Islamic regime buries beauty and talent just to stay in power.

I am a Googoosh fan and I respect her, not only because she is a most gifted artist and vocalist but also because she had the caurage to stay home at the time of hardship and still wants to get back to the place she belongs. Because she decided not to say anything in favor of any political group, both at home and abroad. Because of her honesty when she says that she has made many mistakes. Because of her kind heart when she gives away some money to the homeless children and does not make any propaganda on it.

I see a Googoosh in myself and every other woman in Iran, fire under the ashes. I would like to come out and cry out from the bottom of my heart, "Thank you Googoosh for being a sister for us, thanks for being our diva, sing for our broken hearts, always."

Mina Arab

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