The Washington Post
Adam Bernstein
Marzieh, a celebrated interpreter of traditional Persian music whose career in her native Iran was silenced by the clerical dictatorship and who in exile became a sharp voice of political dissent, died of cancer Oct. 13 at a hospital in Paris. She was 86.
The daughter of a moderate Muslim cleric, Marzieh became widely known through concerts, radio work and records from the 1940s onward.
She remained a captivating entertainer through recent years, with a mesmerizing voice that for her most devoted fans reinvigorated a sense of nostalgia for the monarchist era. She boasted a repertoire of 1,000 songs.
She had never been politically outspoken for much of her career and shocked many Iranians for aligning herself with the National Council of Resistance of Iran, an opposition coalition affiliated with the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization, or MEK…
Marzieh said she was drawn to the National Council of Resistance for Iran because of a fondness for the organization's leader Maryam Rajavi, who reportedly named the singer a cultural adviser.
The singer said the National Council of Resistance of Iran allowed her to recapture a sense of dignity that had been denied her for 15 years.
