The Persian classical music singer Mohammad Reza Shajarian, a towering figure to Iranians for both his artistry and his public stand with protesters against the government, died on Thursday at a hospital in Tehran. He was 80 and had battled kidney cancer for more than a decade. In Tehran, thousands of fans packed the streets outside the hospital where he died — people of all ages, wearing masks because of the pandemic, weeping openly and singing some of his most famous songs, derived from Persian poetry and cloaked in political metaphor. “Bird of freedom sing for me, renew my grief,” the crowd sang in unison. “Oh God, oh sky, oh nature, turn our night of darkness into dawn.”

Source: International New York Times October 08, 2020 22:54 UTC