Marking the recent Refugee Day, Persian singer- songwriter SHAB told David Hennessy about her life as a refugee after leaving her native Iran, that time is running out for the ‘gangster regime’ of Tehran and why Ireland has a very special place in her heart.
Having experienced great turbulence in her early life, the transformative power of music was always there for Persian singer- songwriter Shab.
Having found her voice as a performer, she is determined to use it for the people of her home country of Iran.
Growing up in Iran in the ’70s as the daughter of a petroleum executive, Shab’s life of privilege was turned upside down with the Iranian revolution, as a result of which Shab lived as a refugee in Turkey, and then Germany. She subsequently relocated to Baltimore in the US, where she was reunited with her family after years of separation.
These were the formative years from ages 8- 14.
On arriving in the US, she would be mercilessly bullied.
It is these experiences that make Shab a passionate ambassador for Choose Love, a UK-based charity dedicated to supporting refugees worldwide.
Shab recently released her second album, One Suitcase. This title refers to the one suitcase that she carried all of her worldly possessions in flying to her new life in United States.
Although she arrived in USA speaking only Farsi and German, SHAB not only graduated from university but also briefly attended law school before leaving to pursue a full-time career in music.
Music was always there for her and her family even in the bleakest of times. She says the louder the bombs got, the louder they put the music.
SHAB first gained recognition in late 2020.
During the lockdown, she achieved an impressive five consecutive #2 rankings on the Music Week British Commercial Pop Charts.
Her collaboration with the legendary hip-hop artist Fat Joe on the hit single Voodoo became a sensation in 2023, breaking into the Top 40 on both the Rhythmic and Pop Music charts.
She also has over 25 million YouTube views and 13 million Spotify streams.
SHAB has performed in Ireland and says it is a country that has a special place in her heart.
Shab told The Irish World: “Oh my God, I’ve seen Ireland in the movies and I always wanted to come.
“I had always a connection to Ireland and I just felt like maybe in another time I was there before because whenever I go there, I feel like I’m home.
“I just love that the people were so nice.
“The concert, which I did with JLS, was my first one.
“And I remember that day, I was getting ready to go to the arena and I start tearing up because I was like, ‘Wow, this is really happening’.
“I went out and did my thing and I got so much love, I just felt so welcomed.
“Thinking about Ireland and what the country went through in history to find its freedom, and being a Persian refugee and seeing what happened to Iran and the fundamentalists taking over it, I felt a connection with the people of Ireland and I was so proud of them having their independence and just finding their voice but went through so much to get there.
“You guys are very strong, amazing, beautiful people.
“I love that resilience.
“I cannot wait to come back to Ireland, it’s so close to my heart.”
You’re involved with the Choose Love charity which means a lot to you because that is a cause very close to your own heart…
“100%.
“In the darkest world, there is light at the end of the tunnel.
“We all need hope.”
You had very difficult times from when you had to leave Iran and obviously you got to a better place but it was not easy, was it?
“No, it was not easy and I think that’s why I’m so resilient.
“Being alone from eight and a half to 14, it kind of forces you to grow up and makes you make decisions at that young age for yourself.
“So coming from a big family of 13 and just being alone all of a sudden, was difficult.”
Did you have any warning? Was it a case of all of a sudden you had to leave the country and not understand why? Or did you get some kind of warning things were getting so bad you’d have to leave?
“I was born around the revolution so it was kind of like I just got to Earth and it’s like, ‘Boom, there’s a revolution’.
“My dad was one of the Shah’s number one guys for the petroleum company so you take care of the Shah, Shah took care of you.
“When the revolution happened, they kidnapped my brothers, they burned my dad’s workplace down and I think from all the stress, my dad was like, ‘Oh my god, how am I going to raise these 13 kids?’
“He just had a heart attack at 52 and I was six months old.
“They froze all our assets because we became instant enemy of the state so my mom was forced to sell all her jewellery.
“For the next eight years, we coped.
“Then there was the Iran- Iraq war so in the middle of us trying to survive, this war happens: We’re in school and the sirens are coming on.
“Then the school was two weeks closed and we were at home. We were hearing bombs.
“We were in the house putting on music.
“The louder the bombs got, the louder our music got and we were just trying to keep ourselves in this bubble and dancing and trying to listen to music.
“We just prayed and just kept our energy up high.
“And thank God nothing happened to the people we knew, our friends and family.
“But from that she was like, ‘Okay, we gotta get out’.
“So we became refugees to Turkey.
“I stayed in Ankara.
“I waited for nine months to a year and my paperwork for Germany was ready so they accepted me as a refugee for boarding school.
“And at eight and a half my mom said goodbye to me and I went to the boarding school and I started my new life.
“I was there for five years.
“My mom and my brothers were already in US and I hadn’t seen some of my brothers and sisters for almost eight years.
“They said, ‘Green card is ready’.
“I got on a Lufthansa flight all by myself with one tiny suitcase, everything I owned.
“So I finally saw my mom for the first time after five years and I was 14 years old.
“I was like, ‘Look, Mom, I’m all grown’.
“I was so proud of myself.
“So I started my new life in America at 14.
“I was working as a bus girl.
“I saved money for college and did four years of college and went to law school, dropped out.
“It’s not what I wanted to do.
“I always loved music.”
You were separated from your family from ages 8- 14. They’re such formative years..
“I have kids myself now.
“I have a six year old daughter and a eight year old son and I can only imagine at eight and a half I have to send him to Germany or to another country for him to be to have a better life.
“My mom had no choice.
“I wanted that for my life.
“I was begging my mom.
“I’m like, ‘Mom, please send me away. I don’t want to be here anymore. We have got to do something’.
“She did it for me.
“Anything was better than what I came from.
“I was so grateful every day, so grateful. Even if I didn’t have my family I was like, ‘I know God, there’s a plan for me’.”
As bad as things got, you always had music..
“100%, music has saved my life.
“Music has been so transformational for me through my whole life.
“Also, I was able to transport myself somewhere else.
“Life was not always good.
“Sometimes we didn’t have that much food.
“My mom would have some rice and she would buy a little bit of chicken, because that’s all she could afford for 13 of us, and she would shred it into pieces and put them inside of the rice to mix it for us.
“But she would never tell us we didn’t have money.
“I remember my shoe was falling apart. I had holes in it.
“Then I was kicked out of school.
“I was only seven years old and I walked home crying.
“I go home and my mom’s like, ‘Why are you here?’
“She touches my forehead. She’s like, ‘Are you sick?’
“I was like, ‘No, I was kicked out’.
“She goes to the school.
“She drives me and she goes to the principal.
“She opens the door with her foot and she’s like, ‘How dare you? You know it’s because of your people my husband died. I’m a widow now’.
“Because they were Hezbollah.
“And they would hit the kids in school.
“They never messed with me again.
“But she took me and bought me two pairs.
“She said, ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’
“I said, ‘Mom, I know we don’t have a lot of money. I didn’t want to bother you with the stress’.
“She’s like, ‘I can afford shoes for you’.
“You go through these things and then you appreciate what your parents did for you, your grandparents, what they had to go through to give you this life.
“I’m just grateful to be in this life now.”
Do you have hope for your home country?
“I feel like the only hope is when people are just gonna reunite together and everybody walks out without the veil.
“What are you gonna do? Kill all of them?
“Are you gonna just keep killing these women?
“What are they gonna do?
“Their time is running out.
“Everybody knows that.
“It’s ridiculous.
“People are getting tired, but they don’t want to die.
“I mean say you have one child, a girl or a boy. Are you going to send them outside and just preach like they hate the Islamic Republic?
“They’re afraid to lose their child.
“People are scared.
“I just pray.
“That’s all we can do right now.
“The only thing that can really save us is music right now.
“I feel like God and music.
“I don’t have nothing against the veil.
“If you want to wear it, let it be her choice.
“They suppress women.
“I had to figure out what kind of woman I was in a modern world coming from that extremism to America and learning womanhood.
“My album One Suitcase is about love.
“It’s about womanhood.
“It’s about feeling sexy in my body as a woman and not being ashamed of it.
“There’s nothing taboo about sex.
“It was just all drilled in my mind for so many years that I just had to reprogramme myself.
“It is my refugee story.”
What did having someone like Fat Joe come work with you on Voodoo mean?
“I remember when Lean Back first came out.
“I never forgot that song and I always loved it.
“And then we were thinking about maybe doing something with my first song that I ever released called Spell on Me.
“I always felt like, ‘We need to do something with it’.
“We were like, ‘Oh my god, maybe we can ask Fat Joe..’
“I mean if you don’t ask you, you won’t know.
“He loved the song and then he was like, ‘Wow, you sound like a young Madonna’.
“He was amazing to work with and he loved the song.”
I bet you are more proud of spreading that message and anything you do with Choose Love than even your music and chart success..
“This industry 10% is what you see, the glamor but 90% is just hard work, sweat, tears and doing the work.
“It’s 90% grind, 10% glamour.
“I always like to be busy.
“We also have a charitable organization here in Dallas.
“It’s called Hope Supply and we help homeless moms and children and help them with essential needs and things that they need.
“I love giving back because I had such a hard life and there’s times I didn’t have so I understand.
“I just want to be that light at the end of the tunnel for them so they’re like, ‘Oh my god, there’s people here that really do care’.
“I want to be doing stuff that other singers or celebrities haven’t done yet because my life kind of brought me to this place.
“I didn’t start singing until five years ago professionally, so I wasn’t Beyonce starting at nine years old, or Jessica Simpson singing at church at 10.
“I started my way in my 30s and I just started having a vocal
“I’m learning so much about my voice.
“I feel like I was born again and God gave me this gift.
“One of my dreams would be to build an international school.
“I was made fun of.
“I was bullied.
“We need something cool like that to help the refugees because they really don’t have anywhere to go.
“I thought that would be something really cool to do because education is power.”
Back to Iran and your journey. Your story would be inspiring for some younger females there but does it reach back there? Or does censorship or the oppressive regime keep word of what you are doing from getting back there?
“I don’t know, but I know that they find me here and there because we still have family in Iran.
“My sister actually just went back but she has no political ties.
“I talk about the gangster regime all the time.
“I can’t go back and if they see my face, I’m probably going to be taken away and I don’t want to do that.
“I am not interested in going back ever until the regime has changed.
“That’s when I will go back.
“But as far as the girls, that’s another thing.
“It’s not for me but I have to do this for the women in Iran, and even for the men, they suffer too.
“And not just that but all the people in the world that don’t have a voice, that are oppressed cultures.
“We’re living in 21st century.
“It just breaks my heart.
“I want to just show these girls, ‘You could be a badass. You can be amazing. You’re awesome. Your sexuality is beautiful. Don’t be afraid of your body’.
“I just pray that things change because I feel really bad for them.
“I escaped and I just want to be able to help them too.”
The single Lipstick is out now.
For more information, click here.
For more information about Choose Love, click here.
