Azam Ali
Singer, Composer

The recent accusations & now admission of guilt of sexual abuse and attempted rape against well known Iranian singer/songwriter Mohsen Namjoo are sending waves of disappointment, pain & anger through both the Iranian community as well as worldwide with all his fans.

Having finally caught up with all the facts which are still coming in, I feel it is important for me as a woman & a public figure to add my voice to the chorus of outrage, particularly since yesterday I found out that one of his accusers is a woman I know. I have seen some good men taken down by the #metoo movement solely for their sexual predilections which should have remained a private matter, but this case by the hour, is proving to be otherwise.

All you women who are his friends & friends of mine on FB who are self proclaimed feminists, & are remaining silent & closing ranks behind him, we see you & we hear your silence.

I am strongly against toxic cancel culture of any kind & believe even the worst of us are not beyond the pale of forgiveness & redemption. How Namjoo proceeds from here will determine his reclamation or his ruin. Regardless, his true character will emerge out of these ashes.

What he will in my opinion never ever recover from are the shocking & abhorrent statements he made in the leaked audio in which he speaks of women, ALL Iranian female singers & women’s rights activists, with such contempt, hate, disrespect, superiority & chauvinism.

Here are a few of the gems from this leaked audio. The sexual allegations aside, these misogynist statements with his own words & voice are enough for me to withdraw any respect I once had for him.

"One hour of my breathing is worth six months of the life of my accusers."

“There is not a single living Iranian female singer who can sing & I say this as a singer.”

“No doesn’t mean no. All Persian literature can be interpreted like this”

“I have more followers now on IG & Spotify, so there is no such thing as bad publicity”