Sogol Mirzaei, Iranian artist: “My sister in Tehran hears continuous bombings”

Interview by Camille Scali

Published on June 20, 2025 at 1:07 p.m. , updated on June 20, 2025 at 1:56 p.m.

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Reading time: 3 min.

Testimony This virtuoso of the tar and setar, two traditional Iranian string instruments, who has lived in France for eighteen years, is worried about her family who are living under Israeli attacks in Iran.

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On the night of the first Israeli bombings of Iran , June 13, musician Sogol Mirzaei sent a message from Paris to her sister, Maral, who lived with her uncle and grandmother, Mansoureh, 94, who has Alzheimer's, in the family apartment in Tehran. The building was in the west of the capital, near Mehrabad Airport and the famous Azadi Tower, a neighborhood targeted by the Jewish state. Maral replied that she could hear "continuous bombing," without knowing where the strikes were coming from. That night, the family stayed awake until dawn, unable to sleep. In the early morning, all three of them wondered if they would be able to go out into the street.

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"The state did not give specific security instructions, did not even react or ask residents to leave when Israel demanded the evacuation of Tehran's third district [the very popular district of Tajrish, in the north of the city, where the historic bazaar, several military buildings and embassies are located, editor's note] . The regime also gave absurd instructions such as not to take refuge in the metro... Yet it is a 'safe' place throughout the world," Sogol Mirzaei says ironically. Faced with this absurd situation, Iranians are having to fend for themselves and are sharing advice on social media, such as that of "moving away from windows and exterior walls."

In case of bombing, Sogol Mirzaei's family takes refuge in the windowless bathroom or in the hallway that connects the living room to the bedrooms. But Mansoureh, the musician's grandmother, "too weak to take the few steps needed to reach more sheltered areas," remains bedridden. Her son, who wants to protect her, hides the nature of the explosions from her, claiming "firecrackers, fireworks, or the Fire Festival [a traditional Iranian celebration] ."

An unthinkable situation

The family is unable to leave the capital: "My grandmother, because of her illness, wouldn't last fifteen minutes in a car," laments Sogol. The 37-year-old artist says that one of her friends, Saba, a musician who lives in Tehran, was able to escape: she immediately "grabbed her tar, her suitcase," and headed north. The interpreter was touched to see that, on social networks, those who are leaving post, before their departure, photos of their tidy house, with watered plants, and in the caption: "We hope to find our home like this when we return."

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Iranians are also sharing their new daily lives online: long lines to buy bread, explosions, dust. "A friend I admire for her strength made me laugh until I cried with her jokes," the thirty-year-old jokes. "Right afterward, she was filming columns of smoke from her window." But She n / A No more news, an internet outage occurred on the evening of June 18, and the connection has not been restored. "Nothing is clear, the situation is chaotic," he says wearily. the Iranian performer, who has lived in Paris for eighteen years. Trained in Tehran and graduating from the Sorbonne with a master's degree in musicology, she now performs worldwide as a soloist or in musical ensembles (Orpheus XXI, with Jordi Savall; the Ensemble Chakâm , which she founded in 2014, etc.). The artist excels in the art of râdif , a Persian classical music.

Sogol Mirzaei had to reassure her sister Maral, who has been suffering from palpitations and stress since the first attacks. "Everyone is pessimistic," the musician says. Sogol and Maral quickly realized that after eliminating "pawns of the regime" —high-ranking Iranian officials, military personnel, and scientists—Israel was not going to stop there. The two countries have been in conflict for 46 years, but without having clashed with such intensity. "We never would have thought this situation could arise, " she insists , "even though negotiations were underway." Iran and the United States relaunched talks on Iran's nuclear program in April, and a sixth round was scheduled for June 15 in Muscat, in the Sultanate of Oman.

Already last February, when the musician announced her departure to Tehran to have her instruments (her tar and setar) adjusted by a luthier, her Iranian friends living in France were worried. They reminded her of the risk of new Israeli attacks, after those of April and October 2024. But she took the threat lightly. She recalls her stay with nostalgia: "The day before my return, I walked for thirty minutes along a long street in Tehran. There was a lot of pollution and infernal noise, I had to cover my ears, but I felt good."

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At the start of the Israeli attacks, even more than 4,000 kilometers from Tehran, Sogol was no longer able to make music: "I first tried to start again, but I couldn't last more than five minutes because I was absorbed by my phone and the need to catch up on news." Getting back to playing, for a concert by the Chakâm Ensemble, with Palestinian Christine Zayed and Frenchwoman Marie-Suzanne de Loye, at the Alliance Française theater in Paris, "did her good." It was on June 18. "I was able to vent my anger and sadness," she says in a soft voice. She confesses to shedding a tear at the shared emotion of the audience: "We performed the piece 'Olive,' originally written for Palestine, which we dedicated to Iran and all countries at war."

Le Nouvel Observateur

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