The first time I played a piano concert in France, I had a strange feeling. New. Everything was different. First of all, the audience. The French are less familiar with my culture, to which I'm very attached. Above all, here, women can sing freely on stage. That's impossible back home in Iran. This lack of freedom in music drove me into exile. I left my country in 2018, with the dream of becoming a professional pianist.

I grew up in Teheran in a family of musicians. I began taking piano lessons at 6. The instrument immediately became an important part of my life. I practiced every day after school. At home, we had two acoustic pianos. My father, himself a pianist and an engineer, tuned the second one differently to be able to play oriental melodies which, unlike Western melodies, don't just work in semitones but also in quartertones. I loved the Baroque, Romanticism. My fingers gently brushed over the keys, and played Mozart, Brahms, Schubert, and Beethoven.

Safe from prying ears, in my Iranian home, I risked nothing. I had the freedom to make music. But playing in public was a different matter. It was impossible to release an album or organize a concert without prior authorization from the Ministry of Culture. Certain musical styles, such as rap, are forbidden. Defying these prohibitions can lead to prison.

Between the ages of 12 and 16, I took part in around 10 concerts. I joined the Austrian Embassy choir as a pianist, thanks to my music teacher, who had studied in Vienna. We played classical melodies of German origin and musicals. We once performed The Jungle Book. But always in venues closed to the public or with limited audiences. In places where music is not regulated.

I've also performed in public venues, including my first recital when I was 16. I was able to play my own compositions. But for that concert, I had to ask for permission. I obtained it three days before the event, even though I had applied three months earlier.

The requests are subject to deliberation by a commission at the Iranian Ministry of Culture. You must send them your repertoire of songs. Many artists don't get the green light to perform in concert or release a single. The only time I did it, I had to keep going back and forth to the Ministry until they accepted.

At the age of 16, I had two certainties. The first: I wanted to devote my life to music. The second: being a pianist in Iran is very complicated. Too complicated. I wanted to feel free to play what I liked without having to worry and have access to the work of great professional and international musicians. I also wanted to be able to say what I wanted. For me, art is a social act, a means of conveying messages.

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