Women in modern day Iran are not allowed to sing in front of men. That's been the case ever since the 1979 Iranian revolution and the imposition of an Islamic legal code. But one Iranian diva has found a way around the prohibition. Will Everett has her story.

Pari Zanganeh was already one of Iran's best known celebrities when political openings in Tehran allowed her to share her love of Iranian folk music with fans around the world. She recorded pieces ranging from high opera to German lieder and Broadway hits. But traditional Persian music was her forte.

Zanganeh's career received the boost because Iran's Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was secularizing Iran, liberalizing the society and granting women unprecedented rights.

ZANGANEH: "The last years of Shah's dynasty here, this business of singing for women here was getting much better, with prestige."

Her glamour set her apart, her dark, flowing hair reminiscent of the young Sophia Loren. Oversized sunglasses concealed her blindness, the result of a car accident that happened before she began singing professionally. Vehicles in Iran at the time didn't have safety glass. Thick shards severed both of her retinas, leaving her permanently blind. She was 27 years old.

ZANGANEH: "My previous teachers came to me and persuaded me in order to keep me busy and occupied, then I went back again to conservatory. Maybe if I hadn't been blind, that voice would have been dead. I would never have gone after singing professionally because I would have been occupied with other matters in life."

But Zanganeh's flamboyant stage career was short lived. In 1979, the Shah was driven from power, and the Islamic Revolution was born. Iran's mullahs said the sound of a woman singing would arouse men, and lead them into thoughts of lust. So women were banned from recording and performing in public.

Many Iranian singers fled abroad. Zanganeh dropped out of public view, taking care, she says, to play by the rules. She would leave Iran to perform concerts and make new recordings. But she always returned.

Zanganeh's music is still well known outside of Iran, especially her lullabies.

In 2002 she contributed a SONG to the album "Lullabies from the Axis of Evil." It's called "Gohlale" or "My Tulip, My Pearl."

ZANGANEH: "I'm very famous for my lullabies. When people see me they say, oh, we put our children to sleep with your lullabies. But one day I'm going to make them awake."

She has no trouble keeping them awake at her concerts. Now in her early sixties, she can still pack a crowd, although the audiences are usually restricted to women.

ZANGANEH: "Maybe two, three years ago, I did a big concert in Ahvoss, southern part of Iran, for 6,000 women. I felt myself like a big diva there on the stage."

Right now the folk-diva is blazing new trails into the world of techno. The song "Little Sparrow" is based on a folk melody that was popular during the time of the Shah.

ZANGANEH: "You say to the sparrow, listen, don't come to the edge of our wall or you'll be captured, you'll be even cooked. The big man will eat you at the end. They meant the Shah, this song was made during his time."

Zanganeh remains one of the few female Iranian singers from the pre-revolutionary era to not only survive, but thrive. She says she's made her peace with a difficult situation in Iran. And she's careful to point out that her music is not overtly political.

ZANGANEH: "I like to be ambassador of love to every nation, everywhere."

In today's Iran, that may be the key to Pari Zanganeh's success.