Qamar-ol-Moluk Vaziri

Qamar-ol-Moluk Vaziri was orphaned in infancy and raised by her grandmother Rowzeh-Khan, a religious chanter in the royal Qajar court. Discovered by tar virtuoso Morteza Neydavoud, she possessed an astonishing contralto voice with soaring high-register power and impeccable modal improvisation.

In 1924, Qamar made history by performing publicly without a chador at the Grand Hotel in Tehran before an stunned audience, breaking centuries-old social taboos at immense personal risk. She became the supreme diva of early 20th-century Iran, recording hundreds of Gramophone discs and donating virtually all her substantial performance earnings to impoverished widows and orphanages, dying penniless in 1959.