The Famous Yezdi Lament Singer’s Ban
The Kouyeh Biouk Yazd group, known for its unique lament ‘Allah Allah’ in recent years, is active again this Muharram. However, it no longer has the same atmosphere as before.
Our sources indicate that Mostafa Mohsenzadeh has been banned from lament singing this year by a security organization, and it seems that the famous lament also does not have permission to be performed this year. The last video of this lament on the Instagram page of the Kouyeh Biouk Yazd group is from last year, and in the videos of recent mourning ceremonies, neither Mostafa Mohsenzadeh nor the ‘Allah Allah’ lament is seen. Many people have asked in the comments under the group’s Instagram posts why the ‘Allah Allah’ lament is not being sung and why Mr. Mohsenzadeh is not performing. In response, the issue of not being granted permission has been mentioned. There was also a rumor four years ago about the banning of Mostafa Mohsenzadeh and his colleague Soroush Rahmani, who performed this lament together, but it was later denied. A look at Mohsenzadeh’s Instagram page shows that his political views and lifestyle are naturally independent and different from the political life of government-affiliated singers. For example, one of his posts shows him kissing his wife’s forehead. He is not just a lament singer but also a professional vocalist and has no issue with women singing, as he has shared his wife’s singing on his Instagram page. This past Nowruz, he performed a song called ‘Me and You’ at the Dad Hotel in Yazd with a music group and wrote on his Instagram page that this is the song he and his wife sang together on their wedding day and that maybe you performed it on New Year’s Day. The ‘Allah Allah’ lament has become famous in recent years for its different and protest content, which some have called ‘elegant content’ compared to the shallow laments that have become common in recent years. In these years, famous lament singers and reciters have mostly belonged to a political faction and enjoyed the support and backing of power institutions, to the extent that, thanks to this safe margin, they freely launched sharp attacks on critical currents in their lamentations. This special support is so significant that last week, the government-affiliated Iran newspaper published a 16-page special issue for Mahmoud Karimi, a well-known political lament singer with a history of wielding a gun.
