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Googoosh: A Sinful Voice
Before there was Madonna or Beyoncé, there was Googoosh. For the first time, one of the biggest pop stars of the 20th century tells her remarkable her rise to fame in pre-revolution Iran, her arrest and imprisonment, her twenty-year exile, and finally, her triumphant return to the global stage.
“My story is not only my story. It’s about our past, my country, how it was, what it became, what happened to the people, to artists.”
What would happen to a country’s biggest pop star if religious extremists took control? In the wake of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, singer Googoosh found out. She was ordered by her government to never sing again, and for twenty years, she didn’t...until she did.
Now, in this lyrical and moving memoir, pop superstar Googoosh unveils her unforgettable journey. From her difficult upbringing in Iran’s tumultuous 1950s and ’60s to her stardom in the ’70s, she reveals what it was like to reach the peak of her career just as the 1979 Islamic Revolution swept the country. Seemingly overnight, she went from being on magazine covers, at film premieres and fashion shows, and constantly on the radio, to targeted by religious clerics. What followed is a harrowing tale of oppression, intimidation, and exile.
After more than twenty years—forbidden to sing or speak out—she found her voice at the turn of the millennium, once again on the international stage. Now, inspired by the brave women of Iran on the front lines fighting for their freedoms, Googoosh finally tells her full story, and with it, the story of a country once again on the brink.
“My story is not only my story. It’s about our past, my country, how it was, what it became, what happened to the people, to artists.”
What would happen to a country’s biggest pop star if religious extremists took control? In the wake of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, singer Googoosh found out. She was ordered by her government to never sing again, and for twenty years, she didn’t...until she did.
Now, in this lyrical and moving memoir, pop superstar Googoosh unveils her unforgettable journey. From her difficult upbringing in Iran’s tumultuous 1950s and ’60s to her stardom in the ’70s, she reveals what it was like to reach the peak of her career just as the 1979 Islamic Revolution swept the country. Seemingly overnight, she went from being on magazine covers, at film premieres and fashion shows, and constantly on the radio, to targeted by religious clerics. What followed is a harrowing tale of oppression, intimidation, and exile.
After more than twenty years—forbidden to sing or speak out—she found her voice at the turn of the millennium, once again on the international stage. Now, inspired by the brave women of Iran on the front lines fighting for their freedoms, Googoosh finally tells her full story, and with it, the story of a country once again on the brink.
336 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 2, 2025
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664 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
December 4, 2025
I would love to see this made into a movie. Googoosh's story is powerful and heart wrenching. This was a great read
Want to read
August 19, 2025Loved Googoosh ever since I learned about her and the Iranian Revolution through the Khruangbin music video for “Maria También.”
Highly recommend “Nimeyeh Gomshodeyeh Man” by Googoosh. It’s such a great song.
Googoosh literally out-discos disco.
Highly recommend “Nimeyeh Gomshodeyeh Man” by Googoosh. It’s such a great song.
Googoosh literally out-discos disco.
January 19, 2026
I read A Sinful Voice during yet another wave of unrest in Iran, and it was impossible not to feel the pages shaking.
Googoosh’s story is framed as one woman’s censorship, but it’s really about a nation’s fractured relationship with freedom, especially women’s. For anyone following what’s happening in Iran right now, this book provides the cultural context that headlines don’t.
Googoosh wasn’t just a pop icon in Iran - she was EVERYWHERE. In living rooms, on radios, in the collective memory. A name known and loved in every household whose sudden silence echoed across a generation. Her memoir lays bare the cost of that silencing and the strange loyalty of loving a country that keeps breaking your heart.
As an Iranian immigrant opposed to the regime, this book cut deeper than nostalgia. It made me sit with the grief of leaving, the guilt of watching from afar, and the impossible love we hold for a country that keeps hurting its own people. This isn’t just a memoir of the past. It’s a mirror held up to Iran right now.
Googoosh’s story is framed as one woman’s censorship, but it’s really about a nation’s fractured relationship with freedom, especially women’s. For anyone following what’s happening in Iran right now, this book provides the cultural context that headlines don’t.
Googoosh wasn’t just a pop icon in Iran - she was EVERYWHERE. In living rooms, on radios, in the collective memory. A name known and loved in every household whose sudden silence echoed across a generation. Her memoir lays bare the cost of that silencing and the strange loyalty of loving a country that keeps breaking your heart.
As an Iranian immigrant opposed to the regime, this book cut deeper than nostalgia. It made me sit with the grief of leaving, the guilt of watching from afar, and the impossible love we hold for a country that keeps hurting its own people. This isn’t just a memoir of the past. It’s a mirror held up to Iran right now.
December 26, 2025
Rounded up to a 3. Don't bother reading unless you know who this singer is otherwise it's not something that would appeal. When I met my husband in college many of the Persian students would have weekly parties and the music of Googoosh would be on repeat from cassette tapes. The Persian girls would talk of her latest hairstyle and fashion. She was a very big deal! Her story has me conflicted. Her home life underscores the "dark" side of Persian culture that unfortunately the society has not been able to escape: family abuse, sexism, classism, rigidity, conservative religion, etc. Also, some Persians embellish their stories and I cant help to think she maybe no different. She claims to be poor and broke, yet lives in the wealthy area of Northern Tehran, she skis, she talks of her gold and diamonds, etc, she marries often and indulges in a drug habit for years, she hangs out with the Shah and his family, so is she poor? I don't think so.
December 18, 2025
جذاب و نفسگیر
December 5, 2025
ICON is a euphemism. Incredible perspective on what Iranians lost and felt after the Islamic Revolution.
December 20, 2025
Marvelous. What a world they stole from us
December 30, 2025
I’m reading this with my partner and it’s the best way to introduce and immerse someone in Persian culture and history.
Iran is a complicated country with a complicated history, but this memoir does an excellent job of tying everything together through an engaging narrative where we experience the rise and fall of Iran’s modern ‘golden era’ through the rise and fall of Googoosh and the journey back to the stage.
Through music, politics, history, religion and revolution. It’s like an epic TV show, with each episode/chapter covering a riveting piece of history/drama with an entertaining cast of characters. I hope they make this into something like The Crown!
We really enjoyed reading this together and we continue to enjoy discussing the multifaceted world viewed through Googoosh’s POV!
Iran is a complicated country with a complicated history, but this memoir does an excellent job of tying everything together through an engaging narrative where we experience the rise and fall of Iran’s modern ‘golden era’ through the rise and fall of Googoosh and the journey back to the stage.
Through music, politics, history, religion and revolution. It’s like an epic TV show, with each episode/chapter covering a riveting piece of history/drama with an entertaining cast of characters. I hope they make this into something like The Crown!
We really enjoyed reading this together and we continue to enjoy discussing the multifaceted world viewed through Googoosh’s POV!
December 15, 2025
با اینکه خاطرات جامع و کاملی نبود ولی از خوندنش لذت بردم و صحنه ها طوری بیان شده بودن که کاملا درد را چه روحی و روانی، چه جسمی میشود حس کرد.
و ممنونم که با تمامی سختی هایی که کشیدی ولی با ترانه هات تو همه لحظات با ما بودی. تو غم ، شادی ، عاشقی و ...
و ممنونم که با تمامی سختی هایی که کشیدی ولی با ترانه هات تو همه لحظات با ما بودی. تو غم ، شادی ، عاشقی و ...
January 25, 2026
If Beyoncé was Persian and then lived in the Handmaid’s tale (but it’s real life).
I would say average reader’s enjoyment of this book will be highly correlated with your familiarity with her/her music & films.
If you know who she is —> ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
If you don’t -> ⭐️⭐️.5
I enjoyed it for more personal reasons than quality-of-writing reasons, but giving it 5 anyways cuz she’s an icon and I feel funny giving personal memoirs less than 5.
I would say average reader’s enjoyment of this book will be highly correlated with your familiarity with her/her music & films.
If you know who she is —> ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
If you don’t -> ⭐️⭐️.5
I enjoyed it for more personal reasons than quality-of-writing reasons, but giving it 5 anyways cuz she’s an icon and I feel funny giving personal memoirs less than 5.
January 3, 2026
What a way to start 2026! Googoosh was so much more than just a pop star for the Iranians who grew up knowing her. During the Shah's reign, she represented independence and courage for all women, as she created her own fashion and hairstyles. Her voice conveyed joy and sadness simultaneously, as though she was singing only to you. As times changed and she resurfaced in our lives, she represented so much more: she represented "hope," hope for a future where, as displaced Iranians , we don't have to lose our past to find our future. I believe this memoir could have been much more detailed, and I am certain it only brushed the surface of her life. Nonetheless, I am immensely grateful to have read it, and like many of her fans, she is and will forever be the voice that represents all of us, eternally. ( ps. I still have the bootlegged cassette tapes i bought as a teenager in Tehran, and listened to them over and over again in my Walkman, under my hijab!)
February 3, 2026
As an Iranian, I had heard of Googoosh, but didn’t quite know her story. This memoir of her life really helped me understand more about the Iranian revolution and its impact on the arts and performing, especially for women. Makes my heart break again and again for Iranians during this particularly unstable time. It also made me nostalgic for home, a place she describes as never really leaving you.
January 6, 2026
This was a fascinating look into Googoosh's life, especially parts I had no idea about. I knew the general story of the pop icon forced to give up singing after the Revolution in Iran, and how she didn't perform again until 20 years later in Canada and the UAE. And how people flocked to her shows and sang along to songs from 20 years before. But I didn't know about her child stardom, her painful family history, her difficulty in relationships, her addiction, and her imprisonment and torture by the regime after the revolution. It is a good book.
February 7, 2026
Iranian pop diva Googoosh’s memoir is published in Persian and English. The book’s Persian translation is credited to Homa Sarshar. I read the English version. The 12-hour audiobook (Simon & Schuster, 2025) is narrated by Nikki Massoud. An extensive collection of photos is included after the book’s epilogue. The photos, covering the period from the early 1950s to 2018, show Googoosh with different hairstyles, a variety of clothes (including a few shots with hijab), and alongside various collaborators and family members.
Born Faegheh Atashin in 1950, Googoosh is more than just Iran’s first and most-famous pop diva; she is considered a cultural icon. After many years of silence in the Islamic Republic, she managed to sneak out of Iran, enjoyed a successful comeback career in North America, and now lives in Los Angeles, the city hosting the largest concentration of people with Iranian roots.
She tells her life story with moving prose, from her upbringing in the 1950s, start of her show-business career under the tutelage of her father, Saber Atashin, and stardom in the decade before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. She became house-bound and later imprisoned by Islamic authorities, ending her 21-year silence when she left Iran in 2000. She successfully resumed her singing career in the West, as if she hadn’t lost a beat in the intervening two decades. She returned to stage with her historic comeback performance in Toronto, and continued with sold-out concert for 25 years. In late 2025, at the end of her worldwide Farewell Tour, she announced that she was ending her touring career to focus on activism.
Googoosh begins Chapter 1 with her memories of September 29, 1980, that is, seven months after the Islamic Revolution, when she was summoned to the confiscated mansion of Mostafa Mesbahzadeh, the former publisher of Kayhan daily, who had fled to England. The mansion was now a makeshift prison and a base for Revolutionary Court judges and interrogators. She was asked many questions about her performances, foreign travels, and liaisons. Nearly all questions had been asked during her previous four visits to the notorious Evin Prison, but the interrogator had no record of her previous answers, wanted to double- and triple-check, or was bent on humiliating her.
Googoosh was actually in New York at the time of the pre-Islamic-Revolution unrests, but she decided to fly back to Iran in mid-1980, despite advice from relatives and acquaintances. Contempt for a successful and beloved female singer was quite natural for an Islamist interrogator. In fact, the contempt wasn’t just fueled by the interrogator’s faith but, perhaps equally, by the misogyny engrained in Iran’s culture.
We learn later in the book, that two of Googoosh’s four husbands, themselves successful artists, had misgivings about being married to a woman whose name recognition and popularity overshadowed theirs. Her second husband, Behrouz Vossoughi, told her on several occasions that he didn’t want “his woman” to work, but eventually let go of the sentiment when Googoosh resisted. Vossoughi also harbored fears of becoming known as Googoosh’s husband, instead of a popular actor in his own right. Her fourth husband, prominent filmmaker Masoud Kimiai, encouraged Googoosh to resume her singing and acting career and helped her to leave Iran, but even he did not acknowledge that he was married to Googoosh, his third wife. Googoosh suggests that perhaps, as an intellectual, he was ashamed of his association with a pop star.
Googoosh’s memoir is a major gift to her many fans, now in their sixties & seventies, and an important piece of Iran’s cultural history. These fans reconnected with her through performances of old songs and the new music she created after her comeback. Children and grandchildren of Iranians in diaspora have gotten to know Googoosh via her performances in the West, her old & new albums, and, now, through this bilingual memoir.
Born Faegheh Atashin in 1950, Googoosh is more than just Iran’s first and most-famous pop diva; she is considered a cultural icon. After many years of silence in the Islamic Republic, she managed to sneak out of Iran, enjoyed a successful comeback career in North America, and now lives in Los Angeles, the city hosting the largest concentration of people with Iranian roots.
She tells her life story with moving prose, from her upbringing in the 1950s, start of her show-business career under the tutelage of her father, Saber Atashin, and stardom in the decade before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. She became house-bound and later imprisoned by Islamic authorities, ending her 21-year silence when she left Iran in 2000. She successfully resumed her singing career in the West, as if she hadn’t lost a beat in the intervening two decades. She returned to stage with her historic comeback performance in Toronto, and continued with sold-out concert for 25 years. In late 2025, at the end of her worldwide Farewell Tour, she announced that she was ending her touring career to focus on activism.
Googoosh begins Chapter 1 with her memories of September 29, 1980, that is, seven months after the Islamic Revolution, when she was summoned to the confiscated mansion of Mostafa Mesbahzadeh, the former publisher of Kayhan daily, who had fled to England. The mansion was now a makeshift prison and a base for Revolutionary Court judges and interrogators. She was asked many questions about her performances, foreign travels, and liaisons. Nearly all questions had been asked during her previous four visits to the notorious Evin Prison, but the interrogator had no record of her previous answers, wanted to double- and triple-check, or was bent on humiliating her.
Googoosh was actually in New York at the time of the pre-Islamic-Revolution unrests, but she decided to fly back to Iran in mid-1980, despite advice from relatives and acquaintances. Contempt for a successful and beloved female singer was quite natural for an Islamist interrogator. In fact, the contempt wasn’t just fueled by the interrogator’s faith but, perhaps equally, by the misogyny engrained in Iran’s culture.
We learn later in the book, that two of Googoosh’s four husbands, themselves successful artists, had misgivings about being married to a woman whose name recognition and popularity overshadowed theirs. Her second husband, Behrouz Vossoughi, told her on several occasions that he didn’t want “his woman” to work, but eventually let go of the sentiment when Googoosh resisted. Vossoughi also harbored fears of becoming known as Googoosh’s husband, instead of a popular actor in his own right. Her fourth husband, prominent filmmaker Masoud Kimiai, encouraged Googoosh to resume her singing and acting career and helped her to leave Iran, but even he did not acknowledge that he was married to Googoosh, his third wife. Googoosh suggests that perhaps, as an intellectual, he was ashamed of his association with a pop star.
Googoosh’s memoir is a major gift to her many fans, now in their sixties & seventies, and an important piece of Iran’s cultural history. These fans reconnected with her through performances of old songs and the new music she created after her comeback. Children and grandchildren of Iranians in diaspora have gotten to know Googoosh via her performances in the West, her old & new albums, and, now, through this bilingual memoir.
January 17, 2026
For me, Googoosh was the “it” pop star when I was very young. Like so many others, I knew the words of every one of her songs, and loved watching the videos of her singing and dancing with such flair and style. But I really had no idea about her life story, her childhood, her unsuccessful marriages, how she managed to survive under the repressive Iranian regime for 21 years without being allowed to sing. It was so interesting to live through some of the headline events of those years with her. I listened to the audiobook, and really enjoyed hearing her story, and better understanding the vulnerable yet deeply resilient person that she is.
I would have given this book 5 stars had it been slightly better written. I’m also not sure if it would appeal to a non-Iranian.
I would have given this book 5 stars had it been slightly better written. I’m also not sure if it would appeal to a non-Iranian.
February 6, 2026
Compelling look at one of Iran’s most iconic cultural figures. For Iranian readers, or anyone familiar with Iranian pop culture, it hits differently, because Googoosh isn’t just a singer; she carries memory, identity, and an entire era.
What stayed with me most is the moment an artist at the height of her career is suddenly pushed into silence. That shift from visibility to absence gives the story its emotional core.
The memoir isn’t perfect, it has slow parts and moments where it loses focus, but the life it traces is extraordinary. It reads like the story of someone who shaped a generation and was shaped by history at the same time.
What stayed with me most is the moment an artist at the height of her career is suddenly pushed into silence. That shift from visibility to absence gives the story its emotional core.
The memoir isn’t perfect, it has slow parts and moments where it loses focus, but the life it traces is extraordinary. It reads like the story of someone who shaped a generation and was shaped by history at the same time.
January 3, 2026
A memoir about the life of Googoosh, a popular Iranian singer. From an early age, her father pushed her into singing at adult nightclubs, where she grew up quickly. Married several times, she also developed a drug habit. During the 1979 Islamic Revolution, she was told to stop singing and was exiled. Googoosh also wrote about life in her native country of Iran and the persecution of women there.
Thank you Googoosh, publisher, and Netgalley for this ARC.
Thank you Googoosh, publisher, and Netgalley for this ARC.
January 17, 2026
Enjoyed learning about everything that was going on over there from her perspective and how she was forced to say she’d never sing. Did get a little difficult at times when famous people’s names were thrown around and I have little to no familiarity with them. Also story somewhat jumps around a little too much and had to double check to see where we were at. But overall a great read and definitely made me more interested in seeking out her music
January 21, 2026
An Amazing Biography
I highly recommend this book. Googoosh and Tara Dehlavi whisk you away to her beloved homeland, her triumphs and despairs and the complexities of life in between. You experience Googoosh as not only an amazing, multitalented gracious lady and star, but also her many roles in life as daughter, sister, mother, grandmother, and friend.
I highly recommend this book. Googoosh and Tara Dehlavi whisk you away to her beloved homeland, her triumphs and despairs and the complexities of life in between. You experience Googoosh as not only an amazing, multitalented gracious lady and star, but also her many roles in life as daughter, sister, mother, grandmother, and friend.
December 16, 2025
A beautifully nostalgic journey—Googoosh’s story moved me deeply, bringing both tears and smiles. Truly touching.
January 31, 2026
Twenty-five years ago, I made my feature-length documentary film about Googoosh—Iran’s most celebrated female singer—while she was still living in Iran and forbidden to perform or grant interviews due to the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
I have now read her long-awaited autobiography, which provides the personal narrative my film could not capture: her own account of fame, repression, and resilience. The book is a bold and unflinching portrait of her life before and after the Revolution, and yet another taboo-shattering achievement in a society where women are not supposed to unveil their voices—much less the intimate details of their lives.
While the memoir is substantial and richly detailed, I found myself wishing it were longer. Certain sections and chapters feel compressed, as if shaped by editorial restraint rather than narrative exhaustion, and I hope that at some point an unabridged edition might be published.
I noted three instances where opportunities were missed to emphasize how popular Googoosh was in Iran and the surrounding countries, and why her sudden erasure from the public eye—and ear—was so shocking:
There is no photograph from her first wedding to Mahmoud Ghorabni. Googoosh was so famous that her marriage at seventeen was covered extensively by the press. She was already a star before that marriage.
Her final film, Dar Emtedadeh Shab (Along the Extension of the Night), was the highest-grossing film in Iranian history (prior to the revolution), and she was so popular in the region that it was even dubbed into Russian.
Finally, in 1991, the Iranian government—seeking to build diplomatic relations with Tajikistan, where Googoosh is regarded as a patron saint—allowed a Tajik journalist, Mohyedin Alempour, to interview her for a book he was writing. He was permitted to photograph her without the mandatory headscarf, but she was not allowed to speak on camera. It would have been illuminating to hear her perspective on this encounter—whether an IRI agent was present to monitor the exchange, and how narrowly defined her freedom remained. Tragically, Alempour was assassinated in 1995 during the Tajik Civil War.
None of the above are criticisms so much as a wish list for an unabridged edition. The memoir, as it stands, is an engaging, thoughtful, and highly recommended read. Googoosh’s life is simply so extraordinary that it seems to demand an even more expansive treatment.
I will end with this memorable quote:
“The rupture of tradition is most visible and least tolerated in the arena of women’s emancipation.”
— Farzaneh Milani
https://tubitv.com/movies/100052094/g...
I have now read her long-awaited autobiography, which provides the personal narrative my film could not capture: her own account of fame, repression, and resilience. The book is a bold and unflinching portrait of her life before and after the Revolution, and yet another taboo-shattering achievement in a society where women are not supposed to unveil their voices—much less the intimate details of their lives.
While the memoir is substantial and richly detailed, I found myself wishing it were longer. Certain sections and chapters feel compressed, as if shaped by editorial restraint rather than narrative exhaustion, and I hope that at some point an unabridged edition might be published.
I noted three instances where opportunities were missed to emphasize how popular Googoosh was in Iran and the surrounding countries, and why her sudden erasure from the public eye—and ear—was so shocking:
There is no photograph from her first wedding to Mahmoud Ghorabni. Googoosh was so famous that her marriage at seventeen was covered extensively by the press. She was already a star before that marriage.
Her final film, Dar Emtedadeh Shab (Along the Extension of the Night), was the highest-grossing film in Iranian history (prior to the revolution), and she was so popular in the region that it was even dubbed into Russian.
Finally, in 1991, the Iranian government—seeking to build diplomatic relations with Tajikistan, where Googoosh is regarded as a patron saint—allowed a Tajik journalist, Mohyedin Alempour, to interview her for a book he was writing. He was permitted to photograph her without the mandatory headscarf, but she was not allowed to speak on camera. It would have been illuminating to hear her perspective on this encounter—whether an IRI agent was present to monitor the exchange, and how narrowly defined her freedom remained. Tragically, Alempour was assassinated in 1995 during the Tajik Civil War.
None of the above are criticisms so much as a wish list for an unabridged edition. The memoir, as it stands, is an engaging, thoughtful, and highly recommended read. Googoosh’s life is simply so extraordinary that it seems to demand an even more expansive treatment.
I will end with this memorable quote:
“The rupture of tradition is most visible and least tolerated in the arena of women’s emancipation.”
— Farzaneh Milani
https://tubitv.com/movies/100052094/g...
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews