IRAN. KURDISH SINGER THREATENED WITH STONING

Nazi Azizi, a female poet from the Iranian city of Mahabad, was summoned by Iranian intelligence services for investigation and was told that she could no longer sing or write poems.
Nazi was a poet and singer in the Iranian Kurdistan. The head of the intelligence office in Mahabad, Peyghambarnezhad, questioned her on the ground that she had released a song entitled 'Death of the red rose' on Iraqi Kurdistan TV, and that in a interview with the same channel in 2004 she had spoken about the suffering of women and the lack of women's rights in Iran. The official also told her that, according to the Islamic Shari'ah, the punishment for female singers was stoning. They asked her to send a request to Kurdistan TV to stop airing her clip. Nazi, however, rejected the request.