The Iranian Council of Music, a “unique creation of the 21-year-old Islamic Revolution,” requires written approval before any bar of music is played in public anywhere in Iran. “Along with the Council of Poetry, which vets every word of every lyric written, it is housed within the Ministry of Islamic Guidance and Culture, charged with keeping Iran a pure Islamic country by enforcing a mass of rules about which books people can read, what music they can hear, which foreigners they can talk to.” All of which has predictably led to an official culture and an underground one. – Salon