HADI BASTANI

 Zan Zendegi Azadi is Bastani’s latest fixed-media acousmatic piece. Unlike the majority of his works, it follows a narrative trajectory. It reflects the composer’s first-hand experience of and affective relationship with the online representations of the recent anti-apartheid women’s movement in Iran. It tells a story that begins with Mahsa Amini’s murder at the hands of the morality police officers in Tehran – an event which created the latest spark for an ongoing series of mass protests inside the country and a wave of international support. The composer witnessed how the social media space he had inhabited transformed sonically since the death of Amini on 16 September 2022. In time, such transformations evolved from pseudo-random phenomena and converged towards a uniform message calling for Zan, Zendegi, Azadi, i.e. for Woman Life Freedom. This message, along with Mahsa Amini, Down with the Dictator, Down with Khamenei, and Free Iran, has become the main slogan for the movement.