British singer Joss Stone has been deported from Iran after entering the country, potentially to perform.
In an Instagram post Stone said she knew it was illegal for a female to perform in Iran. “We were aware there couldn’t be a public concert as I am a woman and that is illegal in this country.”
While she is on a world tour and she did say, “our very last country on the list was Iran,” she suggests in her post that she was entering Iran for other reasons. “It seems the authority’s don’t believe we wouldn’t be playing a public show so they have popped us on what they call the ‘black list ‘ as we found out when we turned up to the immigration hall. After long discussions with the most friendly charming and welcoming immigration people the decision was made to detain us for the night and to deport us in the morning,” she said.
Stone’s explanation for being in Iran by stating, “I told them my story and explained my mission, to bring good feeling with what I have to give and show those who want to look, the positives of our globe”.
Her post suggests she was going into the country as some sort of missionary. “When I left home for this leg of the tour I felt very emotional and tearful that the end was on my door step, achieving the goal in completeness is something I have dreamed of and worked towards but a part of me didn’t want it to end, this tour has given me more purpose than I have ever had before. Every experience has good all over it and the lightness that has been found in what we assume is a dark place has been eye opening and for me life changing as my understanding of reality is now so much more informed and based on more facts than I previously had to go by. So my small feeling of worry that it would end is no longer because Iran will not allow it to end. Not yet anyway. And that’s ok.
In a true homecoming moment, Sergio 'Serge' Pizzorno, co-founder and driving force behind the world-renowned indie rock band Kasabian, was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Music by the University of Leicester yesterday, July 16, at a summer graduation ceremony held at De Montfort Hall.
