British singer Joss Stone deported from Iran, put on 'blacklist'
Iran was meant to be the last stop on the singer's worldwide tour.
By ZACHARY KEYSEREnglish singer/songwriter Joss Stone(photo credit: Courtesy)
Joscelyn Eve Stoker, a British singer and songwriter better known by her stage name Joss Stone, reports that she was detained and then deported out of Iran while visiting the country on her worldwide tour.Stoker, 32, has been traveling around the world since 2014, participating and collaborating with local artists in every destination she has visited, normally featuring the genre of indigenous music the country tends to play - sometimes even performing impromptu sets.In Iran women are not allowed perform solo concerts in public. While Iran does not have any specific law banning women from singing in public, authorities have punished female singers in the past. Most recently with Iranian singer Negar Moazzam, who uploaded the exchange with Iranian authorities to her 180,000 Instagram followers, a social media platform the Islamic Republic is attempting to ban along with their already successful countrywide ban on Twitter and Facebook.The Iranian authorities detained Stoker at the airport, for fear that she would perform a public concert during her stay in the Islamic Republic. The singer claims the authorities put her on a type of "blacklist," and said that she knew Iran did not allow women to perform solo in public but she wanted to see the country anyway."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," Stoker said on her Instagram post according to the BBC. "Of course I was gutted. So close yet so far."Stoker wrote in the Instagram post that she does not “fancy going to an Iranian prison,” and “nor am I trying to change the politics of the countries I visit.”Stoker has recently made stops in many war-torn countries such as Yemen and Libya, performing with the local artists and sharing the interactions with her social media followers. She has spent the last five years of her life traveling around the world on this 200-stop tour, with Libya being the 198th stop."I told [the authorities] 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, all with the understanding that public performance wasn't an option in this scenario," Stoker said according to Al Jazeera. "There is music everywhere, even here. We just have to play by their rules and they have to believe we will. It's a trust thing."When word reached the world that Stoker was deported from the country, the state-run Islamic Republic of Iranian Broadcasting network sent out a statment claiming that she did not possess the correct documents to enter the country from Oman.Iran was meant to be the last stop on the singer's worldwide tour.Stoker, a Grammy-nominated artist, rose to fame in 2003 with her multi-platinum debut album The Soul Sessions - her second album Mind Body & Soul also did just as well and went multi-platinum in 2004.