TEL AVIV — Israeli drag artist Nona Chalant, exiled Iranian singer Jeanette R. Yehudaiyan, and music producer Sailo (Lidor Saadia) collaborated on a techno-dance version of the Persian song "Do Kaftar." The song was released as part of an effort to support artistic freedom and dissent in Iran.

"Do Kaftar," meaning "Two Doves," is a sad love song within Iranian culture. Its lyrics were written by poet Qahar Asi, who was killed in Kabul in 1994 by a rocket during the Afghan Civil War. Singer Farhad Darya released a folk version of the song in 1988.

Women in Iran are forbidden to sing in public. In 2025, female singer Hiwa Seyfizade was arrested mid-performance in Tehran, and Iranian singers Zara Esmaili and Parastoo Ahmadi faced detention following viral videos. Instagram accounts belonging to female singers in Iran are also regularly shut down.

Yehudaiyan, who immigrated to Israel at age 15 through Youth Aliyah, recounted her early experiences in Iran. "When I was 11 or 12 years old, a man I had seen around our neighborhood in Tehran knocked on our door. He told my mother that he was the director of the state radio's children's choir, and that he had heard me singing in the yard and thought I had a unique voice. He asked to have me join the children's choir to sing on Iranian radio," she said. "From that moment on, I realized that a girl like me had no place there. I was a curious girl, eager for knowledge, and wanting more. For years, I fought to immigrate to Israel. It was a struggle against circumstances, against social conventions, and also against my own family." She immigrated on the condition that she be educated in a religious institution, a decision her father approved. "Finally, when I was 15, my father agreed to sign my release through the Youth Aliyah, on the condition that I be educated in a religious institution. The separation was difficult. I left behind not only a family, but also a language, landscapes, smells, and sounds. Perhaps that is why, when I arrived in Israel, I locked away inside myself everything that reminded me of the home I had left. I stopped speaking Persian, I stopped listening to Persian music, and I stopped singing." Yehudaiyan's parents were later released from Iran and moved to Israel when she was 30 years old.

Yehudaiyan began singing again after her husband's work took her to West Africa. "With tears streaming down my face relentlessly, I felt that a deep part of me had been waiting all those years to return home. When I returned to Israel, I already had a profession, academic degrees, and a job at Hadassah Ein Kerem, but I knew I had to give this voice a place too. I decided that I wanted to sing." She holds academic degrees and worked at Hadassah Ein Kerem before resuming her singing career.

Chalant, also known as Ronny Chokron, has a 15-year career as a drag artist in Israel and works as a kindergarten teacher. "When Jeanette sings it in the traditional Persian genre of singing, it is about a captured couple of doves – forbidden love and freedom and love without boundaries. I had a vision that this could fuel a revolution, the song being so part of the culture. Add to that a Persian/Israeli woman singer, and me as a drag queen, with the message of no boundaries – it is the very resurrection of freedom," she said. "We know who we are and we know we are always changing. We take a familiar traditional and beautiful song to remind the listener that new times can still reflect tradition." She noted that the song has been released for deejays without the story being widely told yet. "We just released the song for deejays without telling the story yet. We reached out to deejays and influencers in Iran. We are hoping to get a video to them. We aren't alone in our efforts. There are other people also who are working to free them." Chalant added, "Because I'm a nightlife person, I know the nightlife is there. We need the music to set them free – for the women who want to sing, or the gay clubber in the closet who is at a party, underground. This song will open something in their heart. Now is the time to spill out freedom and get rid of the 'war, war, war' mantra. When I hear Jeanette singing, I feel that the Iranian people are our soul cousins. This is our way in."

"When I was a girl in Iran, I wasn't just fighting for the right to sing. I was fighting for the right to be who I am. That is why I feel there is a profound connection between that little girl who heard the door close in the face of the conductor who came to bring her to the choir, and the woman who believes today that every single person deserves a space where their voice can be heard," Yehudaiyan said. "When I watched the students and young people in Iran taking to the streets to make their voices heard, I felt a deep connection to them – not from a political standpoint, but from a recognition of the value of human freedom." "To me, 'We Were a Pair of Doves' ('Zug Yonim Hayinu') is much more than a love song."