Great news for the young folk in Iran:
Iran’s Islamic Propagation Organization has decided the music of Cat Stevens, the British singer who converted to Islam and changed his name to Yusuf Islam, has been given regime approval and will soon go on sale in the Islamic Republic.
“We have chosen to put on the market a selection of songs from Cat Stevens, to show to the Iranian youth that not everything in the West is bad,” the organization’s music director Reza Mahdavi told AFP.
Immortal songs like “Moonshadow” and “Morning Has Broken” will soon be on the lips of every hip young Iranian. But it gets odder:
Last month another Iranian state body, the Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry, said that Queen had become the first rock band to be given the official seal of approval in Iran with the release of an album of their greatest hits.
This decision was taken because of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury’s Iranian roots and despite the fact he was an outlandish gay icon. Homosexuality is strictly banned in Iran.
Western music is strictly censored in Iran and those selling foreign music need special permits, although millions of pirated banned CDs and cassettes are sold on the black market throughout the country.
Other Western acts to have had albums of selected songs released on the official Iranian market are Elton John, Julio Iglesias and The Gypsy Kings.
There are also books containing original and translated lyrics by many western singers such as Leonard Cohen, Celine Dion and even white rap artist Eminem, published to respond to the ever-increasing demands of a nation where 70 percent of the population is under 30.
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