Kamangir (Archer)

Underground Music against the IR

Kamangir | May 22, 2007 | Category Iran

Underground music and video producers have started a series of attacks through footage published in Youtube. These are a few of their works.

No More Lies begins with Ahmadinejad’s campaign-time speech in which he says “do you think our problem is what our daughters are wearing?” The footage then moves on to the scenes of Police brutally arresting a girl in the streets of Tehran. The cleric which comes next is the Minister of Interior. He says “we are sometimes under attack and we have to defend our huge cultural heritage”. The next scenes are Police footage of a raid on a private party. Following with scenes from another Police violence footage, the lyrics start, “Whom are you avenging? The world is going ahead fast”. The song then complains about the numerous norms forced by the administration. The following scenes are Police gently talking to girls regarding their veil. The video puts these formal scenes in contrast with the footage taken by people of Police brutality. “You the youth of the dictatorship, how long will you be silent? … I’ll shout freedom in the wind!”

Tehran starts with scenes of Tehran at night. “This is Tehran, the city in which everything is provocative…You are not a human being, you are trash.”

Holocaust or the Iranian Woman starts with reciting a poet which asks “So you say the murder of the vagrant tribe [Jewish people] is a lie?” Following with pictures of Nazi camps, the footage uses Ahmadinejad’s pictures, asking, “But is it a lie that the Iranian people are oppressed?”

Love of Speed follows a very neat vocabulary game which mocks the reality of Iran. Some of the phrases used in the footage are “We don’t have either launch or dinner, but we eat Yellowcake instead” and “We had two cents, and sent it to Palestine”.