Nasrin’s Dream (2021), is a piece written for Kronos Quartet, inspired by the voices of the people from all around the world, every one of them appearing like drops of rain: once these drops turn into rain, no power in the world will be able to resist them.
Nasrin Sotoudeh, is an Iranian human rights lawyer who was wrongfully sentenced to 38 years of prison and 148 lashes for defending women's right to choose their own attire. This piece was created in August 2020, during her 46-day hunger strike to protest the conditions of political prisoners in Iran during the COVID-19 pandemic.In December 2020, Nasrin Sotoudeh was awarded the Eleanor Roosevelt Prize for her career-long dedication to the advancement of universal human rights.
Nasrin’s Dream, with music by Sahba Aminikia and visuals by Pınar Demiral, was commissioned for the Kronos Quartet by the Hamid and Christina Moghadam Program in Iranian Studies at Stanford University (Stanford Iranian Studies Program), with additional support from the Kronos Performing Arts Association.
Here's how the project was initiated in 2020:
We reached out to thousands of people through social media and asked every one to record their voice saying her name and send it to us. Here's the initial call for voices:
Dear Friends,
Please share:
I and acclaimed Grammy-winning string quartet, Kronos Quartet are working on a new piece named:
“Nasrin’s Dream”
A piece dedicated to Nasrin Sotoudeh, the acclaimed human rights lawyer who has been unjustly sentenced to 33 years of prison and 148 lashes in Iran. She is currently placed in solitary confinement while on a hunger strike since May. Iranian authorities have denied her access to her lawyer and Iranian prisons are infested with the Covid-19 virus. This veteran of a 40-year-long fight for human rights and women rights in Iran is in danger along with several political prisoners in Iran. This is the second time in less than six months that Sotoudeh has gone on a hunger strike to demand Iran’s political detainees' release during the global pandemic.
Let's tell her that we haven't forgotten her courageous acts, by saying and shouting her name, over and over again, like a magic spell, thousands, and thousands of times until the end of eternity.
Say, shout, or scream her name:
"NAS-REEN SO-TOU-DEH"
record it on your phone with NO background noise and upload it here. You can listen to a few samples below, but feel free to say her name IN ANY WAY you prefer.