NAVA EXPLORES EXILE, PROTEST, AND PERSONAL HISTORY ON ‘GABBEH’

WORDS ROB CORSINI

In Iran's Zagros Mountains, gabbeh rugs are woven by Kurdish, Luri, and Qashqai women. These rugs are made from Iran's organic materials - the colours formed from dyes made from the area’s flowers. For NAVA, these rugs represent a connection that these women have to their roots - which is why she chose to name her new album after the rugs.

Now NAVA creates music in exile. She is no longer able to safely travel back to Iran after she spoke out in support of the Women, Life, Freedom movement - which was sparked in 2022 after a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, was killed by Iran's morality police. For the last three years, women in Iran have protested their treatment by patriarchal forces - and NAVA's is one of the many voices calling to end gendered oppression.

With her new album 'Gabbeh' releasing on November 14th - NAVA talks to F Word about Iran's countercultural music scene, how she writes and performs in three different languages, and the common experience of gender-based oppression in Iran and Italy.

LISTEN TO NAVA

Rob Corsini: Hey NAVA! Welcome to F Word. If you were going to introduce yourself now, at this point in your life, how would you do it?

NAVA: So, I would say that I'm NAVA. I'm a Persian music artist, based in Milan, and I'm a shapeshifter. I've been entwined with so many different energies – the fact that I'm a shapeshifter is something that has really created my personality. There’s an image of a Persian person, especially a woman, and I've just been going opposite constantly. One time I’m bald, the next I’m going to have body paint, then I’m going to be super traditional. It's the freedom of expression that I wasn't able to have growing up.

RC: You moved to Italy when you were quite young, what memories do you have from growing up in Iran?

NAVA: It was super fun. I was 16 when I left, so I’d entered high school. You start going out alone more, I made a bunch of friends going skiing, which is something that nobody really knows about Iran. We started partying – there's a huge underground music scene that was going on and that is still going on – it’s actually one of the things that I have FOMO about. It was hard to move to Italy because I was having so much fun there.

RC: What is the underground music scene in Iran like?

NAVA: It's very rap-oriented, especially because rap is a form of rebellious music. It's critiquing a lot of the things that are happening, there was a lot of, like, anger being released through rap music. Back when I was there, it was very male-oriented – now there are so many female rappers that have been blowing up all over Iran. A lot of other things are happening – traditional music mixed with electronic music, there’s cross-contamination there.

RC: You've talked before about how it was when you moved to Italy that you found your love for music – how did that happen?

NAVA: It was very random - that's why I talk about just following the waves. I didn't have the Italian needed to go to an Italian university. One day, I saw a flyer for an International Music Academy for Modern Music, and I thought I’d give it a try. It was not international at all, it was all Italian, but it helped me learn to speak – it’s my third language. And that is when I was thrown into the whole music world.

RC: Who are your biggest musical inspirations?

NAVA: I feel like one of the main ones that has been there from the beginning is Lana Del Rey. I love the fact that she's a shapeshifter as well. I'm absolutely in love with Fiona Apple, who is an absolute rebel. She is one of those artists that really gives you the strength to speak up about something.

Now I go more based on songs than artists. I remember making a playlist for all the inspirations I have at the moment. It became a huge map – like a mind map – with different tracks that have inspired me.

RC: If you had to pick one song from the last couple of years, one that wasn’t made by you, what would be your favourite?

NAVA: [Laughs] No, I don't like my songs. When my songs reach the mix and master stage, I don't think I want to hear them ever again. The song that I have been obsessed over is ‘Puddle (of Me)’ by Saya Gray. It is so mystic. And also, ‘Everything is romantic’ by Charli XCX and Caroline Polachek.

RC: Your new album, ‘Gabbeh’, is coming out next month. Where did its name come from?

NAVA: There are women in nomadic tribes in Iran that weave a specific type of carpets that are called gabbeh. It's kind of like their diary, the colours and techniques they use represent what happens in their daily life, and how they're feeling. For me, a gabbeh is a symbolic journal, which is this album for me. It weaves everything that I've done throughout the past three years.

RC: On the album, you sing in Farsi, English, and Italian – why was that important to you?

NAVA: I actually feel like it happened really naturally. I never forced anything, because that's how I live my daily life. The most honest thing was to just say it how I felt. Being trilingual is an advantage, but also a disadvantage, because sometimes you don't remember a specific word, and you want to say it in a different language. It takes you longer to think about it. With this album, I was so free to just express myself that I just did it to the fullest.

RC: You’re currently in exile from Iran for speaking out in support of the Women, Life Freedom Movement – how has that impacted your art?

NAVA: As a Persian woman – it's never over. You're constantly keeping the protest alive with every choice you make – by riding a bicycle, going to the café, meeting your friends without a headscarf. Just being a singer, being into fashion could be a form of rebellion.

Being a shapeshifter, against all of the taboos of the women's body, and because my imagery is quite forward, I've had a lot of criticism. I remember my parents back in the day were like, is this really necessary? Yes! It is! I need everyone to see that this is just a choice, you have a choice, you can choose. You don't have to do it, but you don't have to be told that you can't do it either.

RC: Why was it important for you to speak out?

NAVA: I feel like I kind of owed it to my roots, being Iranian, to speak up about it and to raise awareness. I really wanted this concept to not be forgotten, because it happened a couple of years ago, but in Iran, every day, we are still fighting. It's absolutely not over.

RC: How does the experience of creating in exile affect your art?

NAVA: This album is very melancholic, it's straight from the heart, because I'm going through these emotions daily. It helps me get through the homesickness that I have, because I know that it's for a bigger reason, because it's connected to a bigger fight and a bigger rebellion.

RC: What do you hope the impact of your music will be?

NAVA: I feel like music is a form of freedom of speech and it is also a catalyst to a bigger movement. In Italy, during the past few years there have been Non Una Di Meno protests [against gender based violence in Italy]. That has really just shown me how my two worlds are colliding, and they have also been colliding in the same direction without me realising it.

RC: What's your favourite F-word?

NAVA: Freak. It’s quite an interesting word, because it's a person who is not in the norm, and that is such an empowering word to me. Yes to freaks. Yes to freaks!