Giti Pashaei

• Name — Giti Pashaei • Native Name — گیتی پاشایی • Birth Name — Giti Pashaei Tehrani • Born — 13 June 1940 • Birthplace — Tehran, Iran • Died — 7 May 1995 • Place of death — Tehran, Iran • Resting Place — Behesht Zahra • Education — Architecture • Occupation — Singer, composer, actor • Children — Poulad Kimiayi

Giti Pashaei was born on June 13, 1940, in Tehran, Iran. She inherited her passion for music from her grandfather, Jafar Mansoori, who was known as a poet and musician. Her early life was spent attending the master-classes of such musicians as Faramarz Payvar and Mehdi Forough. She continued her education in New York City, where she obtained a diploma in architecture and also studied orchestration and harmony and became a composer. In 1979, Islamic Revolution put an end to her singing career. Women were forbidden to sing in public. Later on, she composed many soundtracks for Iranian movies after the revolution in 1979. As a composer, most of the time she worked with her husband Masoud Kimiai, a film director, whom she married in 1969.

• Illustration — Gravestone of Giti Pashaee Giti married to Masoud Kimiai, an Iranian film director, in 1969. In the late 1980s, she moved to Hamburg, Germany, where she researched Western Church and Baroque music. The couple separated in 1991, and have a son Poulad Kimiayi, a pianist, who was born on 14 July in 1980. She died of breast cancer in Tehran on 7 May 1995. Her songs and compositions are still heard abroad.

• Arezooha (1995) • Gole Maryam (1996) • Rangarang: Pre-revolutionary Iranian Pop (2011, as co-artist)

• as actor • Safar sang (The Journey of the Stone, 1978), as Fatemeh • as composer • Blade and Silk (1986) • Tigh o abrisham (1987) • Sorb (The Lead, 1989), as Giti Pashayi • The Snake Fang (1989) • Goroohban (The Sergeant, 1991), as Giti Pashayi