Arghavan

Musiqi-ye zanan (music of women) refers to the body of Iranian music led, voiced, and often composed by women across classical, folk, and popular traditions. It spans unaccompanied or minimally accompanied art-song (avaz) in the Persian dastgah system, regional folk repertoires, and urban pop/ballad styles shaped by radio, cinema, and later diaspora studios. Characteristic features include highly ornamented vocal delivery (tahrir), poetic lyrics drawing on ghazal and modern verse, and a timbral palette that ranges from tar/setar/santur/ney and tombak/daf to string orchestra, piano, and contemporary band or electronic instrumentation. As a cultural category it is also defined by its social context: pre‑1979 mainstream stardom on national media; post‑1979 restrictions on women’s solo voices in mixed-gender public settings inside Iran; and the flourishing of women-led performance and recording in the diaspora and, increasingly, in semi-private and online spheres within Iran.

Santur refers to music centered on the santur (or santoor), a trapezoidal hammered dulcimer whose strings are struck with light wooden mallets. Originating in Persia (modern Iran), the instrument spread through Mesopotamia and the wider Middle East, later inspiring related dulcimers across Europe and Asia. In Iranian classical music, the santur is tuned to the modal dastgāh system and features shimmering tremolos (riz), delicate grace notes, and agile, dance-like passages (especially in chahārmezrāb and reng). In Iraq and the Levant it participates in maqām traditions, while in the Indian subcontinent—especially through the Kashmiri santoor—it was adapted to the Hindustani raga system and re-engineered with more strings and different bridges for sustained melodic development. The timbre is glassy and bell-like but warm, capable of luminous arpeggios, rippling rolls, sharply articulated rhythms, and intricate ornamentation. Modern performers also bring the santur into jazz, film music, pop, and electronic fusion.