“As long as there is silence forced on people, music will keep speaking.”

A silent and invisible illness has stalked Tara Tiba for the worst part of a decade.

Now the Iranian-born Perth singer has hope in her heart as she emerges from the debilitating darkness of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) to perform again for the first time in more than seven years. Tiba had fled an oppressive regime that silenced female voices like hers, only to be struck down in her new home by an insidious illness that wouldn’t even allow her to get out of bed, let alone summon enough energy to sing.

Now, Tiba has found a way to be heard once more.

She made an emotional comeback concert at Fremantle Arts Centre (FAC) this month for International Women’s Day and follows that up this Saturday March 21 as part of the City of Belmont’s free Harmony Festival.

Tiba and her band will be part of a musical showcase of diverse Perth artists including TTT Afro Band, Ricky Neil Jr, Japanese drummers Taiko On and Kobi Arthur Morrison. Other festival highlights include the WA premiere of Menagerie, a giant illuminated puppet spectacle by Sydney-based outdoor theatre-makers Curious Legends, and markets stalls by local artisans.

Mayor Robert Rossi says Harmony Festival is the City of Belmont’s most cherished cultural event, celebrating the area’s diverse community through creativity, storytelling, and shared experiences.

For Tiba, it’s a poignant, bittersweet return after her quest to overcome a serious health condition.  Like many other Iranian Australians, she also is worried for her family and friends who remain under the yoke of the regime in Tehran while being at risk from the attacks on the country.

‘It’s been very emotional coming back to performing after being very ill for a very long time,” she says. “I was bedbound and housebound for seven years. I disappeared, pretty much.

“It feels so surreal that my comeback is during this time. I thought at FAC that I was going to be talking about Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and helping build awareness for mental health. And then it coincided with what is happening to Iran, and I felt so small that I didn’t think that I needed to talk about myself and try to be more of a voice for my people.”

Tiba is inspired that this weekend’s concert coincides with Nowruz, the Persian New Year celebration of rebirth, renewal, joy and unity which marks the equinox and the arrival of spring in the northern hemisphere,

“For decades the Islamic Republic regime has tried to erase this thousands-year-old tradition and our national identity,” she says. “Yet we continue to stand our ground and celebrate who we are.”

“I have a lot of mixed feelings because it’s painful to watch bombs destroying your city but also, I hear a lot of people having hope in their heart for change. 

“I cannot talk on behalf of everyone, of course, but many people like me and many people that we talk with inside Iran, they are that desperate that they want to be rescued.

“People need to know that the war with Iranian people did not start last week. It started 47 years ago with the revolution and the Islamic Republic of Iran. And in January this year, they opened fire and killed tens of thousands of peaceful protesters in only two days. Nobody likes to see their home being bombed but we choose to still hold on to hope for change and a free Iran so we can get rid of this Islamic Republic regime. “

In Iran, Tiba graduated as an architect in Tehran but also studied Persian classical singing. Denied the opportunity to sing in public, she fled her homeland in 2012 to make a new life as a musician in Perth, where she studied jazz at the WA Academy of Performing Arts.

Hailed for her spine-tingling voice, Tiba has two acclaimed albums to her name and has performed internationally from New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art to Madrid’s National Auditorium of Music and Adelaide’s WOMAD. She has performed in two Perth Festival events, Home in 2016 and Siren Song in 2018, when her voice rang out from an installation of 500 speakers high above St George’s Terrace for 10 days across her adopted city.

“It was unreal,” she says. “Female singers are forbidden under the Islamic Republic regime so even my neighbour or my closest friends wouldn’t have heard me in a concert. Then to have the whole city hearing my voice was so surreal, so magical. It was such a lovely project, and I was very honoured to be part of it.”

As someone whose identity is wrapped up in her love for singing and performing, Tiba is optimistic that she has put the worst of her illness behind her. But she needs to manage her health carefully to guard against any flare-up that may silence her again.

She also wants to improve public awareness of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), which afflicts more than 250,000 Australians at any one time. Also known as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, CFS is a debilitating, long-term illness characterized by extreme exhaustion, cognitive difficulties and pain. There is no diagnostic treatment or cure, and symptoms worsen severely after minor physical or mental effort, known as Post-Exertional Malaise (PEM).

“It’s like an invisible illness,” Tiba says. “It’s the disbelief of people who say, ‘Oh, I get tired as well’ and ‘Oh, you were fine yesterday’ or ‘you were fine an hour ago’ when suddenly you’re unable to even get up.

“I can’t blame people who haven’t experienced it because it’s a very strange illness. I don’t know any other illness with the PEM, the Post-Exertion Malaise, when you do a little bit beyond your limit and then you have to pay the price. You can be in bed for weeks or months. It spans a spectrum from mild to moderate to severe or very severe, where people cannot even eat by themselves and need tubes to be fed. The mental and physical part of it is very difficult to explain.”

For her concert at Tomato Lake in Kewdale, Tiba will be backed by keys player Josiah Padmanabham and drummer Alex Reid, both from local outfit Grievous Bodily Calm, along with guitarist Kain Kardell and Tom Berkmann on bass filling in for James Vinciullo and Mark Turner.

While her music is grounded in Persian classical music traditional, she has always tried to find a way to make it accessible to non-Iranian ears. For those who know her music best as a mix of traditional Persian music fused with jazz and Cuban Latin sounds, Tiba says her new style stretches more into what she calls “more epic, cinematic and big festival grooves”.

Reflecting on Harmony Day as an opportunity for people to connect, learn and understand one another better, Tiba believes in the power of art and music to open people’s ears to listen to different points of view and experience different cultures.

“When there’s so much evil in the world, and so much noise, all you can do is try to create beauty, I think, and just focus on empathy, humanity and unity. At the end of the day, we’re all humans.”

The annual free City of Belmont Harmony Festival is on this Saturday 21 March from 3pm-8pm at Tomato Lake, Kewdale. Details: belmont.wa.gov.au/harmonyfestival