Sepanlou, 36, garnered local celebrity as a singer with Southern California's first all-female Persian pop group, Silhouette, formed in 1994. A solo artist since 2000, Sepanlou has released two albums that feature a mix of Mideast instruments and Western pop rhythms, and recently finished a third with songs in English, Farsi and French.
She is known for favoring music with a message. In a re-recorded 1979 song, for instance, she sings in metaphors of ancient trees and young branches, representing those who died pursuing freedom for their homeland.
"I just wish there were a day when these songs don't apply anymore," Sepanlou says. "It's a never-ending nightmare."
Her Facebook page contains video clips of an Iranian Basiji paramilitary officer hitting a child, a grief-stricken man sobbing over a dead friend's pool of blood, a BBC news clip about a threatened government crackdown, an international petition to investigate Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and her own televised interview with Voice of America.
Last month, she was especially shaken by the street shooting of Neda Agha-Soltan, the young woman who has become the face of Iran's public protests. When Sepanlou first saw the gruesome video of Agha-Soltan's death, she says, she was overcome with nausea and tears. She has posted that video on her page, along with a tribute.
"You close your eyes and see these images of blood on the streets," Sepanlou says. "It's very traumatic."
Sepanlou has posted some of her music and video clips on her website, shahrzadmusic.com. A fan, meanwhile, recently put together a video for YouTube featuring her song "Azadi," or "freedom," with clips of the Iranian demonstrations.
She says she has received hundreds of messages from people inside Iran, thanking her for sharing information and for letting them know they are not forgotten. Angry messages have accused her of fomenting the unrest.
For both mother and daughter, the unrest has stirred a sense of deja vu. Nooriala, whose father was an Army general and mother a teacher, supported the 1979 revolution over their objections. Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi and his father, they told her, had modernized the country from a backwater of dirt roads, polluted water and repressive religious traditions.
But there was also repression by the Pahlavi regime and its notorious secret police, SAVAK. Many of Nooriala's writings were banned -- including one poem about red wheat that the government interpreted as support of communism. Nooriala's then-husband, also a poet, was jailed for a time.
