04 September 2004	Saturday	18 Rajab 1425

TEHRAN: Far from its roots in disfranchised US ghettoes, rap music is proving a big hit as a platform for social criticism in the Islamic Republic. But Shahkar Binesh-Pajouh, Iran's bow-tie wearing dapper rapper would look somewhat out of the place in the Bronx.

Chart-topping Binesh-Pajouh, who targets unemployment, poverty and westernized Iranian girls in his new album, is a lecturer with a doctorate in urban planning whose poetry translations will hit the shelves soon.

"I chose rap because I can say many things with it, not because I live like a rapper," said Binesh-Pajouh in his affluent north Tehran apartment. He said it took four years for the Culture Ministry to approve a rap album and it did so only after he deleted six songs from his original 10.

"Iran's officials were reluctant to give permission to rap music because of its critical language," he said. Officials imposed a two-year ban on his live acts in 1999 after hard-line vigilantes broke up one of his concerts at a Tehran music festival.

Following Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution all but classical or religious music was banned. Restrictions eased after the landslide victory of reformist President Mohammad Khatami in the 1997 elections.

The lyrics in Binesh-Pajouh's "Eskenas" album focus on the malaise of poverty. Iran says 17 per cent of the population live in poverty; analysts put the figure nearer 40 per cent.

"No one is born a thief, but you cannot find a loaf of bread at night," the 32-year old sings. "Have you ever seen your child biting a watermelon skin from hunger in a slum?" "Eskenas" is Persian for a banknote and on the album cover Binesh-Pajouh poses like a Chicago gangster, puffing on a fat cigar above a torn one dollar bill.

Among the many maxims drummed into Iranian schoolchildren is: "Anyone who is knowledgeable has power, with knowledge the heart of an old person is young." In Binesh-Pajouh's scathing lyrics this becomes: "Anyone who is wealthy has power, with wealth the heart old person is young."

GAUDY MAKE-UP: Binesh-Pajouh also pokes at fun at girls who he thinks wear too much make-up. "Lip liner and lipstick are more vital than daily bread," he raps.

Iranian girls, he says, would be better off if they followed Persian traditions instead of being infatuated with Western fashions. Binesh-Pajouh has published two books and his translation of love poetry by Chilean Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda is pending publication.

The rapper said music should serve as a medium to challenge opinions in Iran, a country where more than 70 per cent of its 66 million people is under 30. "I intend to criticize socio-political problems more seriously in the future," he said.

Iran's parliament returned to conservative control in May and hardline politicians have lost no time in unravelling liberal reform packages. Emboldened hardliners have attacked everything from parties and women's dress to foreign investment.

A young woman browsing through cassettes in a music shop in Tehran's bustling downtown said she loved Binesh-Pajouh's album. Outside the same shop, where the owner said "Eskenas" had sold like hot cakes, a vendor tempted people to choose from his lengthy list of contraband music.

Binesh-Pajouh believes bans have only set up pre-revolutionary singers as idols for the young. In Iran, live concerts are still tepid affairs as concert-goers are banned from dancing. -Reuters