Taylor Hanson Gathers 16,000 People to Sing in Support of Iranian Women
Singer Taylor Hanson helped organize an effort to gather thousands of singers to record a song to support the women of Iran.
According to People Magazine, the effort is called, “The Voices Project,” and is sponsored by the “For Women Life Freedom” nonprofit organization.
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It utilized over 16,000 singers, including Ben Foldes, Rufus Wainright, and other notable names as well as normal people from different walks of life.
Each individual represents “a peaceful political prisoner currently jailed in Iran.”
Hanson co-founded For Women For Life and stated, “I think the power of this song — and the power of hopefully our rendition, which we created through the Voices Project — is to just bring that simple message that there is a series of injustices going on against the people that, first and foremost, we need to recognize.”
His goal is to, “bring the hearts and minds of people who don’t see themselves as a part of that cause, and that movement, to the conversation — and bring awareness, so that the additional things that need to happen over time, the meaningful shifts in supporting those folks, can happen.”
The song is being released to remember the one-year anniversary of the death of Masha Amini. She died while in Iranian police custody for the crime of wearing her hijab too loosely at the age of 22.
Hanson noted, “It struck me that the people of this country are actually the first who have been victims of the government running Iran.”
He went on, “And suddenly something happened in me. I saw myself as a dad, as a brother, and I thought to myself, ‘If [this happened to] my daughter or my wife or my sister’ — for that matter, my brothers, as women are not the only victims, but they’re certainly the extreme target of violence — I have to believe I would be in the streets protesting with them.”
Hanson described how he put out a call to recruit singers and that the song offers a clear message that, “You have a voice that can elevate the voices of those who have been silenced through what’s going on in [Iran].”
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