ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The annual Fajr International Music Festival held in Tehran dedicated some of its musical selections to the November quake victims of Iranian Kurdistan as well as some 30 Iranian seafarers who went missing when their oil tanker collided with a cargo ship off of the coast of China earlier this month.
The third day of the prestigious 10-day festival first featured a Chinese group’s traditional drum performance, used throughout history to boost a soldier’s morale, followed by the Iranian Lian Band featuring musicians playing songs from southern Iran, IFP stated, citing a Farsi report by Honar Online News Agency.
Iranian musician Mohsen Sharifian played Kurdish music on bagpipes and then called on the audience to keep providing aid to the quake victims of the Kurdish majority province of Kermanshah in Iran.
A 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck the Iraq-Iran border in November killing 620 people and wounding another 12,000 in Iranian Kurdistan. It also left many homeless due to collapsed or damaged infrastructure. The November 11 earthquake was the world’s deadliest in 2017.
Sharifian said he was happy that the event brought together China and Iran, two countries with ancient histories, to create a cultural dialogue.
The Chinese drummers then returned to the stage joining Sharifian and the other members of the Lian Band to dedicate a special musical piece to the 30 Iranian and 2 Bangladeshi crew members who went missing when a Hong Kong based cargo ship collided with an Iranian oil tanker off the coast of eastern China on January 6.
On midday Sunday, the Iranian tanker burst into flames and sank, said Mohammad Rastad, spokesperson for the Iranian team which was dispatched to Shanghai for search and rescue efforts.
Only three bodies were recovered, and there is no hope of survivors, Rastad said, suggesting that all members died within the first hour of the collision “due to the explosion and the release of gas,” as reported by AFP. The ship was en route to South Korea carrying 136,000 tonnes of light crude oil.
The music event went viral on social media in Iran and Iranian media due to a Chinese woman’s headscarf falling off during her performance and being replaced by an Iranian woman in a hijab onstage.
Musician Sharifian, speaking to EuroNews, said that people should have focused on the main purpose of the event, to bridge cultural gaps between countries and to bring awareness to those in need, instead of the woman’s scarf falling off, which he said was just an accident.
The prestigious Fajr International Music Festival, in its 33rd year runs from January 10 through January 20 and features celebrated artists from across Iran and around the world.
