Today on the MERIP Podcast we’re sharing an interview with Nafiseh Sharifi about her recent article in Middle East Report, “Soundtrack of Dissent–Protest Music in Iran.” Sharifi is an Iranian anthropologist and an Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter. She has written extensively on gender and sexuality politics in Iran, including her 2018 book, Female Bodies and Sexuality in Iran and the Search for Defiance (Palgrave Macmillan). 

In “Soundtrack of Dissent” Sharifi provides a fascinating short history of protest music in Iran since the 1979 revolution drawn from her own experiences in student protests, the 2009 Green Movement and the more recent wave of protests that culminated in this January’s “Dey Protests.” In this interview with James Ryan, Sharifi discusses how protest music under the Islamic Republic connects to earlier protest movements under the regime of the Shah and how massive changes in media and technology have altered both the mood and the prevalence of Iranian protest music. Sharifi and Ryan also discussed her recent visit to Iran and how politics and music have been playing out on the streets and in homes there since the recent war began in February 2026. 

Further Reading: 

Nafiseh Sharifi, “Soundtrack of Dissent–Protest Music in Iran” Middle East Report Issue 319, August 2026

“Taraneh: A Documentary” Pegah Ahangarani, dir. BBC Persian, December 25, 2025